- The Indian company Emami Limited has lost its effort to stop Orange Pharma Limited a Kenyan firm from using trademarks ‘Kaluma Mentho Plus and Mentho Plus’ on its products
- Emami ltd said that the trademarks of Emami Ltd (Emami Menthoplus and Emami Mentho Plus) were similar to the trademark known as Kaluma Mentho Plus and alleged that use of the word by the Kenyan company was deceptive, infringing on their brand and leading to confusion
The Indian company Emami Limited has lost its effort to stop Orange Pharma Limited, a Kenyan firm from using trademarks ‘Kaluma Mentho Plus and Mentho Plus’ on its products.
Emami Limited had gone to court in an attempt to restrain Orange Pharma Limited from passing off, importing, manufacturing, selling, supplying, distributing or marketing any products bearing any trademarks known as Emami Menthoplus and Emami Mentho Plus. It said that the trademarks of Emami Ltd (Emami Menthoplus and Emami Mentho Plus) were similar to the trademark known as Kaluma Mentho Plus and alleged that use of the word  by the Kenyan company was deceptive, infringing on their brand and leading to confusion.
The court observed that Emami Limited upon registration of trademark ‘Emami Mentho Plus’, had disclaimed the words Mentho and Plus. The case was dismissed on the grounds that the Kenyan company was entitled to use the words Mentho and Plus in conjunction with Kaluma to describe its product as those words were disclaimed. The judge therefore stated that the Indian company does not have exclusive rights to the words Mentho and Plus. He observed that Emami Menthoplus as a registered trademark comprises a single word (Menthoplus) which is different from the two words used distinctly.
Through its vice president- finance and business development, Chirag Sheth, Emami Ltd claimed that since 1987, it has been associated with the trademark ‘Mentho Plus’ in India and around the world.
