Girnar moves HC against BigBasket over trademark infringement

MUMBAI: Tea maker Girnar Food and Beverages Pvt. Ltd has dragged Alibaba-backed food and grocery retailer BigBasket to court for infringing its ‘Royal’ trademark, two people familiar with the development said.

The Mumbai-based tea maker has approached the court against two registered operating entities of BigBasket—SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd, the business-to-business entity that sources products and sells it to Innovative Retail—which runs the online grocery portal.

Girnar has alleged that the online grocer is using the Royal trademark to sell several products, including tea. “BigBasket is selling several products under the Royal brand, which includes grains, spices, honey and sugar. But Girnar has raised objection to the e-commerce start-up selling tea under the Royal brand,” said one of the people, seeking anonymity as the matter is under judicial consideration. “Girnar Food and Beverage sells several tea brands with many variants, but Royal Cup Tea is its flagship brand,” the person added.

According to the second person, Girnar had approached the court on March 7. The matter will be heard on June 18. The high court website showed BigBasket filed its reply on April 4, while Girnar filed a rejoinder to BigBasket’s reply on May 5.