The Delhi High Court recently awarded Starbucks Corporation compensation about ₹2 lakh and ₹9 lakh cash in a case of trademark infringement suit where registered trademark ‘frappuccino’ was used by another company
Starbuck Corporation was looking forward to a permanent injunction so that the defendant cannot use FRAPPUCCINO trademark of the company.
The case was heard by the bench of Justice Jyoti Singh. The case was filed Starbucks Corporation against one Teaquilla A Fashion Cafe, for using its it’s registered trademark “FRAPPUCCINO” either alone or with a prefix or suffix to confuse people
Starbucks in its petition had pleaded that FRAPPUCCINO is a well-known trademark under section 2(1)(zg) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, on account of extensive use, global presence, trademark registrations in foreign jurisdictions and in India. It further said that FRAPPUCCINO is an important product of the Starbucks family and protecting the copy right was the need of the hour.
The Court observed that the Teaquilla A Fashion Cafe (Defendants) was guilty of infringement and thus will have to pay damage to the tune of Rs.2,00,000 , along with this Starbucks asked for Rs 9,60,000 that included fee of the lawyer and court.
Starbucks has been selling this product around the globe with this name and usage of this by name was infringement of trademark.
The cause that triggered the filing of the suit was the information that the Plaintiff received in November 2018 that Defendant No.2 was operating a cafe or restaurant under the name ‘Cafe TeaQuila– A Fashion Cafe’, wherein Defendant No.1 was selling beverages under the name ‘BUTTER SCOTCH FRAPPUCCINO’ and ‘HAZEL NUT FRAPPUCCINO’, without Plaintiff’s permission, authorization or license