Recently, Delhi High Court ordered a Jaipur-based cafe to pay damages of Rs.2 lakhs along with a whopping litigation cost of Rs.13 lakhs to Starbucks for Frappuccino trademark infringement.
Starbucks has a worldwide reputation in the “FRAPPUCCINO” mark and they possess a trademark for the same, which was truly said by Justice Navin Chawla. The illegal use of the trademark by the defendant clearly shows dishonesty and intent to deceive an unwary consumer and resulting in confusing the consumer between their goods and the plaintiff’s good.
Starbucks filed case against a café called ‘LOL Café’ alleging for engaging in “FRAPPUCCINO” trademark infringement. The café used to sell a beverage with the name of ‘BROWNIE Chips FRAPPUCCINO’ without any permission/license and hence, leading Starbucks to ask the defendant café from not use the FRAPPUCCINO trademark, either alone or with any prefix or suffix.
Earlier, On August 23, 2019, the Court had summoned the defendant (LOL Café) regarding the same issue and also passed an ex-parte ad interim injunction against them.
Even after the summon, the defendant chose not to appear or file any written statements from their end, as a result, they proceeded against the ex-parte.
Further, the HC noted that Starbucks itself uses the FRAPPUCCINO mark as a suffix for its beverages, like ‘Java Chip Frappuccino’ and others. Therefore, the court found adapting the mark as dishonest and with an intention to deceive an unwary consumer. With regards to a similar case‘Teaquila A Fashion Café &Anr’, damages of Rs.2 lakh were provided to Starbucks, as suggested by Justice Chawla.
