The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to intervene in an appeal by a Chennai-based company to stop Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Limited and Divya Yog Mandir Trust from using brand name ‘Coronil’.
“If we prevent the use of word ‘Coronil’ on the ground that there is some pesticide on its name, it will be terrible”, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A. Bobde remarked.
Although Patanjali had launched ‘Coronil’ as a cure for COVID-19, the AYUSH Ministry had trimmed their claim and asked Ramdev to sell it only as an immunity booster.
Arudra Engineers Private Limited, a company which sells chemicals to sanitisers, said it had several trademarks rights over name ‘Coronil’ from 1993. Some of its products include ‘Coronil-213 SPL’ and ‘Coronil-92B’. Their rights extended to 2027.
HC Single Judge decision
On August 6, a Single Judge Bench of the Madras High Court restrained Patanjali from using ‘Coronil’ and imposed a cost of ₹10 lakh on it for commercial exploitation of public apprehensions about COVID-19.
In mid-August, a Division Bench of the High Court suspended the implementation of the Single Bench decision for a fortnight. Arudra then moved the apex court in challenge.
Senior advocate C.A. Sundaram, for respondents, said the case was already listed before the High Court on September 3. The High Court had assured a detailed hearing.
Arudra claims its products with the trademark have a global presence. Its clients include BHEL and Indian Oil.
“The mark adopted by Patanjali for its drugs are clearly identical to the marks registered by the company. Though the products sold by the company are different, use of identical trademarks would still amount to infringement of our intellectual property right,” the company had argued in the High Court.
“Permitting Patanjali to continue to use the mark will directly affect our reputation and the goodwill created over the mark for over 26 years in both international and domestic markets,” the petitioner said.
