Delhi HC awards Rs 13 lakh to Starbucks in lawsuit against Jaipur caf over 'Frappuccino'
New Delhi, Nov 23: Recognising Starbuck's right over the "Frappuccino" mark, the Delhi High Court has awarded the US-based coffeehouse a cost of more than Rs 13 lakh in its lawsuit against a Jaipur caf for trademark infringement.
Justice Navin Chawla permanently restrained LOL Caf from using the "Frappuccino" mark to sell its products and opined that Starbucks Corporation is also entitled to the "cost of the suit", which would be paid by the caf and its owner.
The judge noted that an ex-parte interim order restraining the defendants was passed in the matter in 2019 and "the plaintiff, in the absence of any defence and in view of the uncontroverted assertions...has not only been able to prove its right in the mark 'Frappuccino', but also the infringement and passing off of the said mark by the defendants".
"The plaintiff is also held entitled to the cost of the suit. Apart from the court fee, the plaintiff has filed an 'Advocate Fee Certificate' showing an amount of Rs 13,38,917.85 charged by the counsel as legal fee. The same is found to be reasonable and is thus awarded in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants," the court said in its recent order.
Starbucks said it had moved the court after it came to its notice that the defendant caf was selling a beverage under the name of "Brownie Chips Frappuccino" without its permission, authorisation or licence.
In the order, the court noted that Starbucks was the registered proprietor of the "Frappuccino" mark, which has a "worldwide reputation", and its use by the defendants was dishonest.
"The adoption of the mark 'Frappuccino' by the defendants is, therefore, dishonest and is intended to deceive an unwary consumer. It amounts to infringement of the plaintiff's trademark and would also result in passing off the goods of the defendants as that of the plaintiff's," the court said.
The plaintiff told the court that it uses its trademark "Frappuccino" in 30,626 Starbucks stores in 80 countries and territories, as well as a bottled-coffee beverage that is distributed to multiple third-party grocery, retail and wholesale stores globally.
It asserted that the worldwide sales figures in relation to the mark runs in billions of US dollars and "Frappuccino" contains its invaluable intellectual property rights.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
