'Blender's Pride' v. 'London Pride' : Whiskey Bottles Produced Before Supreme Court To Show Trademark Infringement

The Supreme Court on Friday (January 5) issued notice on a special leave petition filed by Pernod Ricard India Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of an international liquor manufacturer, challenging the refusal of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to grant injunction against the alleged infringement of the trademarks of whiskey brands "Blender's Pride", "Imperial Blue" etc.

The bench comprising of the CJI, DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also issued notice in the stay petition.

The Respondents in the case have been allegedly infringing the bottle design, packing and name through their product “London Pride”.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi representing the petitioners stated, “There can't be a better copy, if I may say so, I have put in the photograph but it is better to see". Rohatgi then showed the bottles of the brands to the bench and explained that there are two brands-Blender's Pride and Imperial Blue. Both are registered brands with 2000 crores as turnover for both brands. As regards "Imperial Blue", the copying is through the identical bottle design, he explained, showing the bottles.

"Trade dress and even the bottle are identical”, he stated. Taking out the bottles from their packaging, the counsel placed them on the dias for the bench to see. Highlighting the problem, Rohatgi stated, “Something worse, the bottle is absolutely identical, Seagram is also mine, they are using it. They are getting it either manufactured from somewhere else or getting from kabaadi, because they can't get Seagram.”

CJI clarified, “You mean the bottle has embossed Seagram”

The senior advocate stressed that there were violations on three fronts, namely in terms of registered mark, name, packaging and bottling. The CJI remarked that his Bombay High Court judgement, Gorbatschow Wodka Kg v. John Distilleries Limited 2011 SCC OnLine Bom 557 dealt with a similar issue of passing off in the shape of the vodka bottle. Agreeing to the same, Mr Rohatgi added that Gorbatschow Wodka Kg was the only few of the recent judgements on trade design and contended that the present case also relied upon the same.

Insisting that “in all these cases it is the interim that matters”, Mr Rohatgi requested that the prayer for stay on the impugned order be granted.

The bench issued notice, making the matter returnable on January 19, 2023.

The High Court refused to pass injunction order observing that premium whiskey consumers will be able to differentiate between the brands and hence there was no "deceptive similarity" between the brands.

“….It can be safely presumed with a sufficient deal of certainty that the consumers of such products would be mostly literate and having reasonable intelligence to distinguish between the bottles of Blenders Pride/Imperial Blue and that of London Pride. Even if they are of average intelligence with imperfect recollection, they would be able to differentiate between the rival competing brands… Liquor consumers of scotch whiskey are educated and discerning type. They are literate persons belonging to the affluent class of society.”, the bench sitting at Indore noted in the judgment.

Case : PERNOD RICARD INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED vs. KARANVEER SINGH CHHABRA SLP(C) No. 028489 - / 2023 

Click here to read the order