Mom's Magic vs Good Day Butter Cookies: Madras HC permits ITC to exhaust existing stock

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court upheld a previous order issued by a single judge of the High Court last month, prohibiting ITC from selling Sunfeast Mom’s Magic butter biscuits in a blue wrapper.

Sunfeast Mom’s Magic was deemed deceptively similar to the packaging used for many years by Britannia Industries for Good Day Butter Cookies.

First Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy partially granted an original side appeal filed by ITC and permitted it to sell its butter biscuits in the blue wrappers until the current stock in such packaging is depleted. However, they emphasised that a change in color must be implemented once the existing stock is exhausted.

Justice PT Asha issued the interim injunction against ITC Limited, noting that consumers typically cannot distinguish between two identical biscuit packets displayed side by side in a retail shop. This observation led to the conclusion that a competitor should not be permitted to utilise the same color wrapper as another manufacturer had been using.

The judge had additionally clarified that the term 'mark' encompasses the shape of goods, packaging, and combinations of colors according to the Trade Marks Act, 1999. Consequently, ITC is prohibited from selling its butter biscuits in a blue wrapper, as Britannia has been utilizing this color for the Good Day Butter Cookies since 1997.

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