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Informist, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has restrained Alaina Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and its marketer Menarini India Pvt. Ltd. from manufacturing, selling or using a name on its pharmaceutical or medicinal preparations similar to Mankind Consumer Products Pvt. Ltd.'s 'AcenStar' trademark, till the permanent injunction suit filed by the latter is decided. The respondents will not manufacture or sell Acne Scar, Acne + Scar or AcneScar products with the current names, it said. AcneStar is a dermatologically tested range of skincare products by Mankind Consumer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mankind Pharma Ltd., to treat acne and prevent new breakouts.  

 

However, considering that Menarini India has been selling the product since 2022 and that stock bearing the name has already been supplied to the trade, the company is granted a period of two months to recall the stock from its distributors, stockists, retailers and ecommerce sellers, and withdraw the listings of the product, said the high court. It is clarified that the time so granted is only for the purpose of recall, and shall not be construed as permitting the defendants to manufacture, advertise, offer for sale or supply any product under the given name in the interim, it said.

 

Mankind Consumer has been able to make out a prima facie case of infringement, said the high court. Mankind Consumer is the registered proprietor of AcneStar since 2005, with total sales of about INR 5.40 billion, while Menarini India has neither a registration nor an application for the mark, the court said. The balance of convenience lies in favour of Mankind Consumer, it said. The injunction would not affect the use of Hexilax and Menarini in its name, or the sale of the product itself, and would only require Menarini India to adopt a different name for the product, it added.

 

Mankind Consumer is the proprietor of the word mark AcneStar registered in respect of "pharmaceutical and medicinal preparations". The mark was originally registered in the name of Lifestar Pharma Pvt. Ltd., which was later amalgamated with Mankind Pharma Ltd. Thereafter, Mankind Pharma Ltd. assigned the mark to Mankind Consumer by a deed of assignment in 2025, deemed effective from 2024. 

 

The petitioner said that they have used AcneStar continuously since 2005, for a clindamycin and nicotinamide gel, and also for soaps and face washes. As per the certificate of the auditor, the sales under the mark since inception were about INR 5.40 billion and the sales for financial year (Apr-Mar) 2024-25 were INR 763.90 million.

 

The defendants manufacture and market a serum for acne scars under the name Hexilak Acne + Scar. The product is manufactured at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, under a cosmetics manufacturing licence. Mankind Consumer came to know about the product in February and on enquiry learnt that the defendants had begun marketing it in May 2025. Consequently, the petitioner moved the high court to seek a permanent bar on the respondents from using name similar to AcneStar.

 

At 1259 IST, the shares of Mankind Pharma Ltd. were down 0.2% at INR 2,271.80 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 Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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