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Informist, Friday, Jul. 3, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Whirlpool of India Ltd. Friday moved the Delhi High Court, seeking to restrain Havells India Ltd. from airing an advertisement calling the latter's Lloyd fridge as India's first anti-frost single-door refrigerator. The high court questioned Whirlpool as to how this was an intellectual property right suit and it was not convinced that it was an unfair competition towards the company by Havells India's advertisement. 

 

If the advertisement came in April, Whirlpool had enough time to approach the court to seek an injunction, said Justice Jyoti Singh on the petitioner's argument that it needed urgent interim relief. Refusing any immediate injunction, the high court asked Whirlpool to justify how its suit was maintainable under the category of intellectual property right. Seeking Havells' reply, the high court placed Whirlpool's suit for hearing on Jul. 8.

 

Whirlpool said it came to know about Havells' advertisement of its Lloyd refrigerators in June. Whirlpool questioned whether Havells had the ability or material to show it was the first to bring anti-frost technology in refrigerators. As an immediate relief, Whirlpool asked the court to direct Havells to remove the word "first" from its advertisement. Whirlpool said an immediate restraint was needed in view of the advertisement being played during the football World Cup commercials.  

 

Havells said Whirlpool's suit was not maintainable, and questioned which part of the intellectual property right of Whirlpool was infringed by the advertisement. 

 

According to the advertisement, Havells launched Lloyd refrigerators that stated it was India's first fridge with artificial intelligence-powered anti-frost technology. The refrigerator uses three intelligent sensors, monitoring usage patterns. It uses a light sensor, motion sensor and temperature sensor that together decide the ideal moment to defrost automatically.  

 

At 1155 IST, shares of Whirlpool of India Ltd. were down 0.6% at INR 806.30 on the National Stock Exchange, and those of Havells India Ltd. were down 0.4% at INR 1,181.50.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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