Paytm, the largest e-wallet company in India, which saw a drastic surge in user volume post-demonetization, has found itself embroiled in a controversy over its logo with the US-based PayPal, also a digitized payment system. Paypal claims that Paytm\u2019s logo is \u2018deceptively and confusingly similar\u2019 to that of the global giant\u2019s. PayPal further claims that Paytm is free-riding on the goodwill of PayPal. What is similar between the two logos is that the first syllable of both the logos is dark blue while the second syllable is a light blue. Secondly, the word \u2018Pay\u2019 is common to both logos.<\/p>\n
The notice asks the relevant authorities to desist from accepting Paytm\u2019s trademark application, claiming that the colour scheme of both the logos bear such a great degree of similarity as to cause confusion in the minds of customers. The notice claims that allowing the registration would be in violation of ss. 9, 11 and 18 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.<\/p>\n
The provisions specifically mentioned in the notice are s. 9(2)(a), 11(1), 11(2), 11(3), 11(4), 18(1), are 11(10).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A colour or combination of colours may constitute a trademark; and in this particular situation there is a high degree of similarity between the colour schemes of the two. In the case of Loubotin v. Yves Saint Laurent<\/em>, the court stated that including a colour within the scheme of trademark registration may affect the competition in the market. However, what is of significance in the tussle between PayPal and Paytm is that the combination of the two colours is nearly identical, with the public associating the colour scheme with the holder of the earlier trademark.<\/p>\n The most crucial element for the registration of a trademark is distinctiveness. Another element of contention between the two is their phonetic similarity. In the Cadila Healthcare v. Cadila Pharmaceuticals<\/em> case, the court refused trademark registration to the word Falcitab, which was similar to Falcigo, a drug that was used for the same purpose due to its phonetic similarity. However, this was in reference to medication, where similarity in the names of drugs could have potentially disastrous consequences. A landmark case in regard to \u2018deceptively and confusingly similar\u2019 trademarks is the Pianola case<\/em>, where it was held that one must look at the word as a whole, both phonetically and visually in order to determine the similarity between the two.<\/p>\n Thus, PayPal\u2019s argument may hold good, as there is a high degree of both phonetic and visual similarity between the two words- Paytm and PayPal.<\/p>\n Authored by Malavika Parthasarathy (Intern)<\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong> The PayPal and Paytm trademark dispute centres on alleged similarities in their logos and the potential for consumer confusion under Indian trademark law. This analysis explores the legal arguments and key judicial precedents that inform the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":37,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[5341,29,5619,2301,2302,1731,407,101],"class_list":["post-38105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-trademarks","tag-deceptive-similarity","tag-india","tag-legal-analysis","tag-paypal","tag-paytm","tag-trade-marks-act-1999","tag-trademark-dispute","tag-trademark-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38105","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=38105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135549,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38105\/revisions\/135549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttp:\/\/techcorplegal.com\/Files\/PayPal%20Trademark%20Opposition%20of%20PayTM.pdf<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.gizbot.com\/apps\/news\/paypal-vs-paytm-find-what-the-dispute-is-all-about-036920.html<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/lawmin.nic.in\/ld\/P-ACT\/1999\/The%20Trade%20Marks%20Act,%201999.pdf<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/gadgets.ndtv.com\/internet\/news\/paypal-accuses-paytm-of-using-a-deceptively-and-confusingly-similar-logo-1638702<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.lakshmisri.com\/Uploads\/MediaTypes\/Documents\/L&SWeb_IPR_Article_Trademark.pdf<\/a>
\nImage Source here<\/a>, the image is in the public domain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"