PepsiCo wins trademark case over ‘Aquafina’

New Delhi: Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd has won a legal battle in the Delhi High Court over the trademark ‘Aquafina’ used for its packaged drinking water.

In Delhi High court , bench of Justice G S Sistani restrained PSI Ganesh Marketing from using “deceptively similar” trademark ‘Aqua Fies’ and causing infringement of rights in the trademark and copyright.

The court also awarded damages to the tune of Rs 5 lakh to Pepsico India on account of illegal activities of PSI Ganesh Marketing and ordered destruction of all the infringing goods within 4 weeks.

“On the basis of the documents placed on record, the plaintiffs have established that PepsiCo is the owner of the trademark, trade name, logo and label ‘Aquafina’ and the plaintiff have the exclusive right to use the same,” the court said.

“The impugned trademark of the defendants is deceptively similar to the PepsiCo’s trademark. The use of the word “Aqua Fies” by the defendants is likely to dilute the distinctive character of the plaintiffs trademark “Aquafina” and the same is likely to erode the goodwill and reputation of PepsiCo among its existing as well as potential customers in the market,” it said.

 

Pepsico said that the ‘Aquafina’ product was launched in India as early as 1999 and it is a unique word coined and exclusively adopted by it.

It also said that under section 17 of the Copyright Act, all rights in the label are owned by the plaintiffs and the said label is distinctive and is an original artistic work under section 2 (c) of the Copyright Act.