Patanjali Trademark Infringement: Bombay HC Passes John Doe’s Order Directing Meta & Others To Remove Videos

The Bombay High Court has recently passed an order of John Doe directing Meta and several others to take down all the defamatory videos which allegedly violated ‘Patanjali Food’ registered trademark.

Single-judge Justice Manish Pitale restrained the Meta platforms from circulating videos which Patanjali objected to in its suit alleging infringement of its trademark ‘Mahakosh’, an edible oil product manufactured by it.

Therefore, Patanjali approached the Court aggrieved by a video circulating on Facebook containing derogatory remarks against the product.

Patanjali sought urgent relief, claiming that the videos would continue to hurt the product’s reputation.

The company claimed that “The video not only infringes Patanjali’s registered trademark but it has the effect of spreading misleading and false information and impression in the minds of the general public with regard to the product bearing the registered trademark.”

The court was also informed that Patanjali owned it’s registered trademark since 1998 and collect substantial goodwill.

In April 2023, Patanjali came across the videos uploaded on Meta’s platforms – Facebook and Whatsapp.

It noticed that a particular community was spreading misinformation with a call to boycott the product.

Patanjali issued cease and desist notices to Meta platforms, but no response was received.

Therefore, it was compelled to approach the High Court.

The court held that, “The contents of the video in question, available an Meta platforms prima facie appears to have infringed upon the registered trademark of Patanjali. A strong prima facie case is indeed made out for granting ad-interim reliefs in favour of Patanjali.”

In view of this, the Court passed an order of temporary injunction preventing Meta platforms from infringing on Patanjali’s registered trademarks, including ‘Mahakosh’.