More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026

 

--HC orders canceling Razenta Pharma's Daplogin trademark on Dr Reddy's plea

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has ordered the Registrar of Trademarks to cancel Razenta Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd.'s Daplogin trademark as it was similar to Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd.'s Daplo trademark. "This court is of the opinion that the mark Daplogin is deceptively similar to the mark Daplo, which is an earlier registered trademark and the rival products under the two marks are identical with the same API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) and are for treating Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus," said Justice Jyoti Singh. Registrar of Trademarks is directed to rectify its register for removing Razenta Pharmaceuticals' trademark within six weeks, she said.

 

The fact that both the medicines used by Razenta Pharmaceuticals and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories are prescription drugs is not enough to dispel the likelihood of confusion and, therefore, the registration of the mark Daplogin falls foul of Section 9(1)(a) and Section 9(2)(a) and Section 11(1)(b) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, said the court. The Supreme Court has held that in trademark disputes relating to pharmaceutical products, it is the primary duty of the courts to take the utmost care to prevent any possibility of confusion, as confusion in non-medicinal products may at best cause economic loss, but confusion in the pharmaceutical industry may have disastrous effects on the health of patients and, therefore, the threshold of the confusion is different, noted the high court. It is also settled that phonetic similarity or pronunciation can cause huge confusion at the time of purchase of the product, which must be avoided at all cost, it said. 

 

 

Razenta Pharmaceuticals dishonestly adopted the mark Daplogin which subsumes the mark Daplo in entirety and the explanation given for adoption that it has followed normal practices in pharmaceutical industries, where companies often derive brand names from molecules and salt for medical practitioners to recall easily, is completely fallacious, said the court. One wonders why Razenta Pharmaceuticals adopted Daplogin with Daplo as a prefix and a dominant part of its mark, knowing that Daplo was Dr. Reddy's mark and that too for a drug used for treatment of diabetes and the only answer that comes to mind is that this was with an intent to sail as close as possible to the petitioner and take unfair advantage of its immense goodwill demonstrated by the revenues earned, said the court.

 

Dr. Reddy's, which had a turnover of $3.35 billion for financial year 2023-24 (Apr-Mar), had adopted the trademark Daplo, which has no dictionary meaning. The drug sold under Daplo by Dr. Reddy's was used either alone or in combination with other medicines to treat Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus and helps in controlling high blood pressure levels in diabetic patients as also in reducing chances of serious complications and preventing heart ailments. The petitioner said that it has used the Daplo mark continuously and extensively since the year 2020 and it was synonymous with its products and associated in the minds of public. The petitioner had registered its trademark Daplo in 2020, which is valid till 2030. It had a revenue of INR 213.54 million in FY25 for sale of its medicinal product under the Daplo mark.

 

In 2021, Razenta Pharmaceuticals obtained trademark registration for the Daplogin trademark. The registration of Daplogin trademark is illegal and contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Act, since the mark is visually and phonetically similar to Daplo, said Dr. Reddy's. The mark Daplogin is devoid of any distinctive character and is incapable of distinguishing the goods of Razenta Pharmaceuticals from the goods of the petitioner, said Dr. Reddy's.

 

At 1334 IST, shares of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. were up 0.7% at INR 1,178.30 on the National Stock Exchange.  End  

 

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

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj and Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.