{"id":147505,"date":"2026-01-13T08:47:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/?p=147505"},"modified":"2026-01-13T08:47:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:17:44","slug":"little-hearts-trademark-infringement-delhi-hc-injunction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/little-hearts-trademark-infringement-delhi-hc-injunction\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLittle Hearts\u201d, Big Infringement: Delhi HC Injunction"},"content":{"rendered":"
Background of the Dispute<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Britannia Industries Ltd (\u201cPlaintiff\u201d), an Indian food products company established in 1918, adopted the \u201cLittle Hearts\u201d brand in 1988 and launched its distinctive sugar coated, heart shaped biscuits on 22 May 1993. The Plaintiff enjoys trademark protections, over the word marks, 3D shape marks as well as the packaging and trade dress in India. The brand “Little Hearts” alone generated \u20b9203.4 crores turnover for the Plaintiff in the period between 2024-2025, widely available on e-commerce websites as well.<\/p>\n

In December 2025, the Plaintiff discovered infringing \u201cLittle Hearts Biscuits\u201d on Amazon (Defendant 5), procured samples and identified Defendants 1 to 4 as operating jointly with identical marks and shapes, references to the \u201cBritannia Little Hearts\u201d gold red pack, and replicated images, the copyright in which vested in the Plaintiff.<\/p>\n

Key Legal Issues<\/strong><\/h5>\n

At the core lay the issue of deliberate, bad faith and dishonest adoption of the identical \u201cLittle Hearts\u201d mark and 3D shape marks on identical products traded through identical channels, with the mala fide intent to mislead ordinary purchasers. An ad interim injunction was sought under Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 CPC to avert consumer confusion and irreparable damage.<\/p>\n

Arguments put forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Submissions were put forward regarding adoption of the \u201cLittle Hearts\u201d mark through trade mark registrations for word marks, 3D shapes and packaging and trade dress variants, sales revenue and e commerce presence. It was argued that Defendants 1 to 4 had collectively listed the infringing products on Amazon with a deceptively identical \u201cLittle Hearts\u201d word mark, a 3D heart shape for biscuits, \u201cAbout this item\u201d listings falsely referring to \u201cBritannia Little Hearts\u201d, the gold red pack, and reproduction of Britannia\u2019s copyrighted product images, which was relied upon as proof of knowledge and mala fide intent.<\/p>\n

It was further argued that the mala fide use and adoption by the Defendants were likely to cause consumer confusion, leading consumers to assume the infringing goods to be emanating from or connected with Britannia, and diluting the Plaintiff\u2019s goodwill and reputation built over decades.<\/p>\n

Court’s Findings and Analysis<\/strong><\/h5>\n

On conducting a side by side visual scrutiny, the Court was prima facie convinced of the similarity between the products. This perusal was stated to reveal infringement beyond doubt. Amazon listings portraying the infringing products as “Britannia Little Hearts” with Plaintiff’s images constituted explicit admission and deliberate deception, evidencing mala fide to ride upon the Plaintiff\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

The Court was convinced that it was a case of triple identity, namely identical marks and shapes, identical goods (sugar coated heart shaped biscuits), identical channels (e commerce) and identical consumer groups (average biscuit buyers).<\/p>\n

Final Order and Conclusion<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Until further orders, Defendants 1 to 4, their partners, directors, agents and distributors were restrained from manufacturing, selling, marketing or advertising the \u201cLittle Hearts\u201d mark or shape or any identical or similar variants to the Plaintiff\u2019s registrations, and from exploiting the Plaintiff\u2019s copyrighted images in any manner. Defendant 5 (Amazon) was instructed to immediately delist or take down all such infringing listings. The matter was listed before the Joint Registrar for hearing on 10 February 2026 and before the Court on 21 May 2026.<\/p>\n

This decision reaffirms that in cases involving identical marks, identical goods and identical trade channels, ad-interim injunction is granted to prevent consumer confusion and safeguard accrued goodwill while court proceedings are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Citation: Britannia Industries Ltd<\/em> v. Shri Swastik Organics & Ors. <\/em>CS (COMM) 1393\/2025 & I.As. 32346-50\/2025, Delhi High Court on 23 December 2025<\/strong>. Order available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Authored by Ms. Vidhi Kela and reviewed by Ms. Benita Alphonsa Basil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ad interim injunction was granted by the Delhi High Court in a dispute concerning the \u201cLittle Hearts\u201d mark, 3D biscuit shape, trade dress and product images. Amazon was directed to delist the infringing listings pending further orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":152,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5495,12446,11],"tags":[12474,12475,12472,486,4374,12473,3394,1754],"class_list":["post-147505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-case-reviews","category-trade-dress","category-trademarks","tag-3d-shape-mark","tag-amazon-delisting","tag-britannia-industries","tag-delhi-high-court","tag-interim-injunction","tag-little-hearts","tag-trade-dress","tag-trade-mark-infringement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147510,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147505\/revisions\/147510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}