Bombay High Court upholds single bench ruling in Hindustan Unilever-Emami row

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court dismissed Emami’s plea challenging a single bench’s order directing the Kolkata-based company to provide seven days prior notice before initiating legal proceedings against Hindustan Unilever or claiming interim relief from the company over the use of trademarks.

A division bench of Justice RD Dhanuka and Justice VG Bisht dismissed Emami’s plea, saying it was not inclined to interfere with the order passed by the single bench.

While challenging the ruling of the single bench on Thursday, Emami also approached the Calcutta High Court to restrain Hindustan Unilever from using the trademark ‘Glow & Handsome.’ Emami said it had launched the trademark ‘Glow and Handsome’ before Hindustan Unilever announced changes to the names of its products.

Hindustan Unilever said on July 2 it was rebranding its skincare products to ‘Glow & Lovely’ for women and ‘Glow & Handsome’ for men. Emami said that it was evaluating legal action against HUL for renaming its men’s cream to ‘Glow & Handsome.’

HUL approached the court on July 6 to restrain Emami from issuing “groundless threats” with regard to the use of the ‘Glow and Handsome’ brand. HUL sought the court’s intervention to direct Emami to give it seven days’ notice before approaching any court to seek relief, which the single bench allowed.

“Emami has filed a suit in the Calcutta High Court, which we will contest,” an HUL spokesperson said.

An Emami spokesperson declined to comment, citing the sub-judice nature of the matter.

Senior counsel Virag Tulzapurkar along with advocate Hiren Kamod, who appeared with Vaibhav Keni of Legasis Partners in the case for HUL. Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas and law firm J Sagar Associates are representing Emami.