Delhi High Court sets aside order restraining Dabur from selling 'Thanda Tel' in packaging allegedly similar to Emami's Navratna

A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court recently set aside a single-judge order restraining Dabur from selling its 'Cool King Thanda Tel' hair oil in packaging which was alleged to be deceptively similar to Emami’s Navratna [Dabur India Limited v. Emami Limited]..A Bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma remanded the matter to the single-judge to consider afresh Emami’s application for an ad interim injunction after granting opportunity to Dabur to file its reply.“Accordingly, and for all the aforesaid reasons, the present appeal shall stand allowed. The impugned order dated 09 August 2023 shall stand set aside. The matter shall consequently stand remitted to the board of the learned Single Judge who may proceed to consider the application for ad interim injunction afresh, in accordance with law and without being influenced by any observation appearing in this order,” the order stated..On August 9, single-judge Justice C Hari Shankar had passed an interim order against Dabur holding that it had consciously tried to copy the essential features of Emami's product to capture the market.Dabur filed an appeal against this order stating that it did not get an opportunity to present its case in opposition to Emami's application for grant of injunction. It said that the arguments on the same were firstly heard on August 7 and the matter was re-notified to be heard on August 9, when the order was finally passed before it could file any reply.Dabur was also contended that it adopted the trademark and brand name 'Super Thanda Oil' for its red-coloured hair oil in the year 2006 itself, and therefore, the observation rendered by the single-judge that the red oil had been lifted by them, would not sustain..The Court considered the case and said that the contentions raised by Dabur must be examined by the single-judge and that it must be given an opportunity to oppose the injunction application filed by Emami.“We are thus of the opinion that the circumstances merit the matter being remanded to the learned Single Judge for consideration of the ad interim injunction application afresh and after affording an opportunity to the appellant / defendant to file a reply in opposition,” the Division Bench observed.It added that in order to fast track the consideration of injunctive relief, Dabur shall file its response to the said application within two weeks.“We accord liberty to the respondent / plaintiff to move the learned Single Judge with an appropriate prayer for reconsideration of its ad interim injunction application. The appellant / defendant shall render all cooperation in the expeditious disposal of the said application.”Dabur has also been asked to maintain detailed records of all of its products till the time the application is decided afresh. .Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar with Advocates Anirudh Bakhru, Ankur Chibber, Kripa Pandit, Prabhu Tandon, Navreet Kaur, Christopher Thomas, Pragya Chaudhary, Umang Tyagi and Vijay Laxmi Rathi appeared for Dabur.Emami was represented by Advocates Abhimanyu Bhandari, Roohehina Dua, Charu Mehta, Harshit Khanduja and Sahib Kochhar..[Read Order]