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Informist, Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Friday directed the trademarks registry to remove Visage Beauty and Health Care Pvt. Ltd.'s D-Tan trademark on a plea by Honasa Consumer Ltd. The high court upheld Honasa Consumer's argument that the mark D-Tan is a descriptive term, commonly used in the trade to denote the process of removing tanned skin, and is therefore not eligible for trademark protection. 

 

D-Tan or Detan marks are nothing but pure descriptors of the kind, quality and intended purpose of the products manufactured falling strictly within Section 9(1)(b) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, the court said. Section 9(1)(b) deals with absolute grounds for refusal of trademark registration. It prohibits registering trademarks that consist exclusively of marks or indications which serve in trade to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, values, geographical origin, time of production, or other characteristics of goods or services. 

 

The high court said that the chartered accountant's certificates given by Visage Beauty, prima facie establish, commercial success of the company's products, the same cannot connote, corroborate or establish as a fact that the mark D-Tan has been imprinted in the minds of the general consumer indelibly in such manner that when the same is recollected by the general public, it is the goods of the company alone that come to the mind of the general public. Neither such a document nor any evidence has been placed on record regarding this aspect, in the absence of which, this court is unable to accede to the argument that the mark D-Tan has acquired secondary significance to be granted the protection sought, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said.

 

The case has its genesis from Honasa Consumer launching its products under the trademark Aqualogica in 2021. While Honasa Consumer was manufacturing and offering for sale its products under the mark Aqualogica, in 2023 Visage Beauty issued a cease and desist notice to Honasa alleging infringement of its trademark D-Tan under the mark Aqualogica Detan + Dewy Sunscreen.

 

Contesting the notice, Honasa Consumer sought removal of the De-Tan trademark, arguing that the term is widely used in the cosmetics industry worldwide. All the relevant stakeholders in the cosmetics industry manufacturing cosmetics and skin care products understand and use the word de-tan as a descriptive word to describe the product, the petitioner said.

 

Friday, the shares of Honasa Consumer Ltd. ended 2.7% higher at INR 417.40 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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