ITC moves Calcutta HC against Britannia over alleged ‘Sunfeast Wowzers’ packaging imitation

New Delhi: ITC has approached the Calcutta High Court alleging that Britannia Industries has copied the packaging and trade dress of its biscuit brand ‘Sunfeast Wowzers’ and filed a case for infringement of intellectual property rights, as per the news reports.

The Kolkata-based conglomerate, which operates across cigarettes, foods, personal care, paper and agriculture, has sought an injunction restraining Britannia from manufacturing and selling the competing product, among other reliefs.

The matter came up for hearing on Friday before the bench of Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur. The court did not pass any ad-interim order and instead directed both parties to file affidavits.

ITC launched its cheese-flavoured biscuit ‘Sunfeast Wowzers’ in late 2024 and, according to a petition filed by the company, became the number two player in the category with sales of around Rs 51 crore within 12 months.

Britannia later entered the segment with ‘50:50 Cheese Dipped’. ITC has alleged that the competing product carries a similar visual identity and packaging to ‘Sunfeast Wowzers’.
The cheese-flavoured biscuit segment, popularised in India by ‘Malkist’ from Indonesia’s Mayora Group, has seen increased activity from companies targeting the premium end of the market.

In its filing, ITC stated that it had conceived and launched ‘Sunfeast Wowzers’ with a distinctive packaging and trade dress, which it considers an original artistic work protected under the Copyright Act, 1957. In intellectual property law, trade dress refers to the overall visual appearance of a product or its packaging that helps consumers identify its source.

ITC has cited the product’s commercial performance, advertising investments and consumer recognition to assert goodwill and exclusivity in the trade dress. It argued that the pack features a distinctive combination of black and orange-yellow elements and alleged that Britannia’s ‘50:50 Cheese Dipped’ packaging is identical or deceptively similar, potentially leading to consumer confusion.

On this basis, ITC sought urgent ad-interim reliefs, including restraining Britannia from manufacturing, selling or advertising the disputed product.