Mitali Palnitkar
Published on: March 11, 2022 at 20:49 IST
The Bombay High Court cleared the way for PhonePe to file a fresh Suit claiming Trademark Infringement against Resilient Innovations, the owners of Postpe.
The Division Bench comprised Justices SJ Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav. It refused to interfere with the Order of Single-Judge which granted Leave to PhonePe to withdraw the earlier Suit and file a fresh one.
Resilient Innovations had filed an Appeal against the Single-Judge’s Order. However, the Court dismissed the Appeal as not Maintainable.
The Order stated, “We make it clear that no observations have been made on merits. For a period of 3 weeks, will not move for any Ad-Interim Relief in the second Suit so that the Petitioner can assail the Impugned Order.”
PhonePe had alleged that Resilient was engaged in the field of digital payment services through its mobile application ‘Postpe’. It claimed that ‘Postpe’ was in blatant Infringement of PhonePe’s Trademark.
The Infringement Suit was heard by Single-Judge of the High Court who refused Interim Relief after noting that PhonePe did not have Registration of the work mark ‘PE’ per se. It has a device mark with the word ‘PE’ in the Devanagari script.
PhonePe had sought to withdraw the Suit with the Liberty to File a fresh one while the Single-Judge was dictating the Order. The Judge also allowed Resilient to rely on the observations made while making submissions in the fresh Suit. However, Resilient challenged this in its present Appeal.
The Appeal stated that liberty shall not be granted to PhonePe to cure a defect of substance, improve the frame of Suit, or overcome the possibility of failure.
Senior Advocate Janak Dwarkadas representing PhonePe opposed the Appeal stating that it was not maintainable as it did not take away any vested right of Resilient. Also, PhonePe was entitled to Statutory protection as it was the registered Proprietor of the Trademark.
Senior Advocate Darius Khambata representing Resilient contended that the Order in question was a Decree. Resilient should have got a chance for responding to the prayer of PhonePe seeking liberty to file a fresh Suit.
On December 3, 2021; the Verdict was reserved by the Bench and pronounced it today.
Also Read: Delhi High Court quashes BharatPe’ Petition opposing PhonePe’ Trademarks