No Chance Of Customer Getting Confused Between 'Xpert' Soaps And Harpic's 'DrainXpert': Delhi High Court Upholds Registration

The Delhi High Court has upheld the registration of “Harpic Drainxpert” trademark in favour of household goods manufacturer Reckitt and Colman.

Justice C Hari Shankar dismissed the appeals moved by RSPL Health Private Limited, engaged in manufacturing similar goods such as dish washing bars and gels under the mark 'Xpert', seeking rectification of Register of Trademarks by removing the mark “Harpic Drainxpert”.

“When one sees the manner in which Respondent 1 (Reckitt) uses the impugned mark “HARPIC DRAINXPERT” on its pack, there is absolutely no chance of any customer getting confused between Respondent 1’s and the petitioner’s mark. The eye is immediately drawn to the “HARPIC” swirl towards the upper half of the pack, rather than to the word “DRAINXPERT” on the lower half, much less to the “XPERT” part thereof,” the court said.

It observed that the registrations of RSPL’s trademarks “pre-date” the applications moved by Reckitt. However, Justice Shankar added that the mere fact that the rival marks cover similar goods or services would not be suffice to invalidate later registrations.

The court observed that treating the mark “Harpic Drainxpert” as similar to the mark “Xpert” would be stretching the principle of similarity to an unreasonable extent.

“The principle of similarity is not so elastic as to be stretched to breaking point. “XPERT” is only half of the second word of Respondent 1’s impugned registered word mark, which is “DRAINXPERT”. It is only, therefore, if one were to ignore “HARPIC”, bifurcate the second word of the impugned mark into “DRAIN” and “XPERT”, and ignore the first of the said two parts “DRAIN” that the petitioner’s mark and Respondent 1’s mark would become alike,” the court said.

Furthermore, the court observed that it cannot plainly presume that the “mythical public” would be confused between the two marks in question, when one is the mere word “Xpert” per se and the other is “Harpic Drainxpert.”

“To reiterate, the impugned mark, seen as a whole, is “HARPIC DRAINXPERT” and the most prominent part of the mark is unquestionably “HARPIC”, which is also the house mark in respect of which several of Respondent 1’s marks are registered,” the court said.

Case Title: M/S.RSPL HEALTH PRIVATE LIMITED v. RECKITT AND COLMAN (OVERSEAS) HYGIENE HOME LIMITED & ANR.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 746

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