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Colgate wins IPR dispute with rival Anchor over packaging
MUMBAI: In a significant order relating to trademark rights in the trade dress comprising of the colour combination, Colgate yesterday won an injunction in an intellectual property case against Anchor Health & Beauty Care Pvt. Ltd.
The Delhi High Court order restrained Anchor from using Colgate’s colour combination of red and white in that order on the container/packaging of its tooth powder packaging. The interim order was issued on 29 October.
After “careful and cautious consideration to the rival contentions”, Justice JD Kapoor ruled that he had come to “the most ineluctable conclusion that the plaintiffs (Colgate) have successfully established a prima facie case for injuncting the defendant (Anchor) from using the colour combination of red and white in that order as trade dress on the container and packaging. As a consequence, the application is allowed and defendants are, by way of an ad interim injunction, restrained from using the colour combination of red and white in that order on the container/packaging of its goods viz. the ‘Tooth Powder’.”
According to a release issued by Colgate, the dispute arose soon after the toothpaste behemoth launched a new look can for its toothpowder product in August 2002 comprising the proportioned red and white colour combination with newly added splashes of yellow. Anchor almost immediately came out with its own “look-alike” version of toothpowder packaging.
