Just Desserts

WeiKFiELD Products Company India Pvt. Ltd.(Weikfield), India’s largest manufacturer, supplier and retailer of Custard Powder and other confectionery products such as Drinking Chocolate, Baking Powder etc.; successfully restrained Quality Food Products India, a Pune based partnership firm, from passing off the product Custard Powder, by obtaining an Order of Temporary Injunction from the District & Sessions Court at Pune. Weikfield was represented by R K Dewan & Co.

In 2009, through their team of market researchers, Weikfield found out that Quality Food Products India was manufacturing and selling custard Powder under the unregistered brand name Right Choice. The product Right Choice Custard Powder was found to be sold in packaging which was a near exact and a colorable imitation in respect of the design, calligraphy, color scheme, pictures and other aesthetic features as that of Weikfield Custard Powder. After conducting a Quality check it was found that Right Choice Custard was a sub standard product manufactured using inferior quality ingredients which could be hazardous to the health of its consumers. It was found that Quality Food Products made a futile attempt to pass off its product as that of Weikfield.

In spite of having received a legal notice, Quality food products continued to sell and pass off its Custard Powder as that of Weikfield’s, trying to deceive the public at large, risking public health in an attempt to encash on the impeccable reputation of Weikfield earned over a period of 50 years.

Weikfield thereafter though their advocates and legal advisors, R K Dewan & Co. approached the Hon’ble Pune District Court by filing a civil suit for passing off under the provisions of the Trademarks Act, 1999. The Learned Judge having heard the advocates for Weikfield on the Application for Temporary Injunction filed under the provisions of Order 39 Rule 1 & 4 of the CPC, was convinced that Quality Food Products have indeed committed passing off under the Trade Marks Act. As a result of the arguments advanced, the Learned Judge was pleased to grant Temporary Injunction in favour of Weikfield with a direction to Quality Food Products India to discontinue their product Custard Powder and a warning not to pass off any of its other food products including custard powder as that of Weikfield’s by way of deceptively similar packaging.