The Delhi High Court dismissed the interim injunction plea by PhonePe, digital payments, and financial services company headquartered in Bangalore, against BharatPe on using the suffix ‘Pe’.
The court order, which was passed on April 15, said that there is insufficient evidence to conclusively say that the ‘Pe’ suffix would be “indelibly associated” in the public consciousness with PhonePe’s services.
The order said, Barring the common ‘Pe’ suffix, it cannot be said that the ‘PhonePe’ trademark of the plaintiff and the ‘BharatPe’ trademark of the defendant are confusingly or deceptively similar. As words, they are entirely different, except for the ‘Pe’ suffix. ‘Phone’ and ‘Bharat’ are not even phonetically similar.
PhonePe filed a court petition seeking a restraining order against BharatPe for alleged trademark infringement in 2019.
