Naturals trademark: Delhi HC ruled in favour of Naturals Ice Cream

The Delhi High Court, in its judegment on October 19, 2022, passed an order against NIC Natural Ice Creams, which is promoted by Walko QSR Company Pvt. Ltd., restraining them from using the trademarks NATURAL / NATURALS/ NIC Natural Ice Creams, NIC, ,  or any other mark deceptively similar to the trademarks of the original Naturals Ice Cream that belongs to Raghunandan Kamath-promoted firms Siddhant Icecreams LLP and Kamaths Ourtimes Icecreams Pvt. Ltd..

In the order passed by Justice Jyoti Singh, the Court noted that the business of ‘NATURAL’ branded ice cream was originally started by Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath in the year 1984, which over a period of time has become an iconic brand for ice creams and ice cream based products.

The court further noted that “The immense goodwill and reputation garnered by the Plaintiffs is being encashed by Defendant No. 1 to pass off its goods by misrepresenting to the consumers that the products of Defendant No. 1 emanate from the Plaintiffs. Consumer base and trade channels being same, rival products being identical and the impugned mark being deceptively similar likelihood of confusion and misrepresentation is evident and the actions of Defendant No. 1 in collusion with the remaining Defendants are  causing irreparable harm and injury to the reputation and goodwill of the Plaintiffs.”

The Delhi High Court has thus also restrained NIC Natural Ice Creams from using the domain names ‘nicicecreams.com’ and ‘nicnaturalicecreams.com’, and has also directed Zomato and Swiggy to remove all listings of NIC Natural Icecreams and any other party using Kamaths group’s original ‘NATURAL’ brand in relation to their food/ beverage products.

The Plaintiff, Natural Ice Cream, was represented by Sandeep Sethi, Senior Advocate instructed by Tejveer Bhatia, Partner, Rohan Swarup and Kunal Vats, Principal Associates, Tanya Arora, Utsav Mukherjee and Anjalika Arora, Associates of Singh & Singh Law Firm.