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Informist, Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has rejected Parle Products Pvt. Ltd.'s plea challenging an order of the Registrar of Trademarks to register the '20-20' trademark in favour of Avon Agro Industries for coffee, tea, biscuits and related products. The court said merely because Parle Products had commenced manufacturing goods using the '20-20' mark earlier than Avon Agro, and also obtained prior registration, it would not preclude the latter from asserting its right, or from getting the '20-20' mark registered in its favour.

 

Avon Agro had been pursuing its trademark application for rights to the '20-20' mark from 2007 to 2025, when it was finally registered, said the court. It is clear that Avon Agro was not just consistent but also vigilant in pursuing and processing its application to the logical conclusion, it added.

 

Further, Avon Agro had applied for registration of the '20-20' mark on Sept. 29, 2007, while Parle Products had applied on Oct. 4, 2007, thus, undeniably making the former a senior adopter of the said mark. Consequently, Parle Products putting the '20-20' mark to use by manufacturing goods from 2009 onwards is also rendered inconsequential in view of the court's previous judgments, the court said. The senior adopter would oust the junior adopter for the purposes of registration of trademark when two entities apply for a similar, identical, or a deceptively similar mark on a "proposed to be used" basis, it added.

 

Parle Products argued that the trademarks registrar completely overlooked the fact that the petitioner had been using the '20-20' mark continuously from 2008-09 onwards. The rights of Avon Agro stood extinguished on account of prolonged non-use of the mark amounting to abandonment, said Parle Products.

 

Avon Agro said it diligently pursued its trademark application for as many as 17 to 18 years without any fault on its part, which cannot enure to the benefit of Parle Products. Being a senior adopter of the '20-20' mark, Avon Agro has an overriding right over that of Parle Products, it argued.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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