Britannia drags Future Group to court alleging trademark infringement

Kishore Biyani-led company Future Consumer Ltd. is facing the heat as Britannia Industries has filed a trademark infringement case alleging that the former has copied the packaging of several of Britannia’s biscuit brands.

A case has been filed in Delhi High Court last week in which Britannia alleged that Future Consumer’s packaging for some of its ‘Tasty Treat’ brand of biscuits which is the flagship brand of Future Consumer is “deceptively similar” to that of Britannia’s biscuit packs. Britannia has also objected to Future Consumer’s use of ‘Good Time’ on one of its product packs, stating that it sounds similar to Britannia’s ‘Good Day’ brand. According to Britannia, this is a case for trademark infringement as well as passing off.

Britannia has accused Future Consumer of copying the packaging of ‘Good Day’ butter and cashew variants and ‘Bourbon’ and some other biscuit brands. Britannia has also objected to seven of the packagings of ‘Tasty Treat’ biscuits.

According to a person familiar with the issue, both companies are now doing out-of-court settlement talks. Further, Future Consumer has proposed to make some changes to its packs. Both the companies are said to have long-standing business dealings and are likely to resolve the issue amicably.