Delhi High Court restrains sale of ‘Lotus Splash’ products by 82°E pending trademark suit

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed actor Deepika Padukone’s skincare brand 82°E not to sell, advertise or deal in products bearing the trademark “Lotus Splash” or any mark containing “Lotus” until a pending lawsuit filed by Lotus Herbals is decided.

The order was passed by a bench of Justices V Kameswar Rao and Vinod Kumar on a plea filed by Lotus Herbals. The court held that Lotus Herbals, which owns the trademark “Lotus”, was entitled to protection against the use of the phrase “Lotus Splash” by DPKA Universal Consumer Ventures Private Limited, the parent company of 82°E, for its facial cleanser.

“We find that the trade mark of the respondents '82 °E' is at the base of the bottle as against the mark/phrase 'Lotus Splash', which occupies a more prominent place at the top of the bottle, this surely suggests that the attempt is to make the mark 'Lotus Splash' more prominent than the actual mark of '82 °E',” the court said in its judgement.

“We grant the prayer for temporary injunction and restrain the respondents… from manufacturing, selling, importing, exporting, offering for sale, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in Cosmetics, Beauty and Hygiene products under the impugned trade mark 'Lotus Splash' or 'Lotus' derivative marks or any other identical and/or deceptively similar trade marks to that of the plaintiffs trade mark being 'Lotus' whether being used independently or with any prefix or suffix till the final disposal of the suit,” the court ordered.

Lotus Herbals had challenged a single-judge order dated 25 January 2024 that rejected its application seeking an interim injunction on the use of “Lotus Splash”. The application formed part of its broader lawsuit against DPKA Universal Consumer Ventures.