The Bombay High Court, in a temporary order, has restrained FMCG firm Emami from selling any skincare product under the brandname containing the words ‘Glow and Handsome’, saying that prima facie Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has used them first in its brands.
Justice S C Gupte passed the order on Monday on an application filed by HUL under the Trade Marks Act, seeking an injunction against Emami from using the trademark ‘Glow & Handsome’.
HUL recently dropped the word ‘Fair’ from its skin creams for men and women, and renamed the skin cream for men as ‘Glow & Handsome’.
Emami claimed that it was the proprietor of this trademark, and was going to launch a skincare cream for men under the same name.
“… plaintiff (HUL) prime facie appears to be a prior adopter and user of the mark ‘Glow & Handsome’,” the high court said in its order.
HUL had already launched its goods in the market with this trademark while Emami was still at the stage of adopting a process of launching its goods, the court noted.
“Its (Emami) application for registration of that mark is also of a subsequent date,”the order said.
Further, HUL had sufficiently advertised its new brand ‘Glow & Handsome’, said the court.
“At this threshold stage, it is reasonable to see that there is concrete likelihood of confusion and deception in the public, if identical marks are allowed to hold the field for popular and much sold commodities,” it said.
Until the final disposal of the matter, Emami, which has not yet brought its own goods into the market under ‘Glow and Handsome’ brand, deserves to be restrained from doing so, said the judge.
“Pending final hearing and disposal of the matter, the defendant (Emami) is temporarily restrained from using the alleged mark ‘Glow & Handsome’ and/or any other mark containing the words in respect of any grooming, skincare and cosmetic products,” the court said.
It posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
According to HUL, it launched Fair & Lovely face cream in 1975. In 2006 it launched ‘Fair & Lovely, Men’, and in 2018, it coined and adopted the trademarks ‘Glow & Lovely’ and ‘Glow & Handsome’, being the first company to do so, it claimed.
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