Why Calcutta High Court closed dispute between Dhruv Rathee and Dabur over Real fruit juice

Nearly a year-old litigation between Dabur India and popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee came to an end on June 18 with the latter agreeing to blur the packaging of Dabur's product, Real fruit juice, in his videos [Dabur India Limited vs Dhruv Rathee]..The video showed the impact of packaged fruit juices on health in comparison with fresh fruit juices. The video used the logo and trademark of "REAL" fruit juice. Single-judge Justice Krishna Rao closed the suit filed by Dabur after recording the contentions of the parties with both agreeing to Rathee's suggestion to blur the packaging of Real fruit juice."The defendant no.1 without prejudice to his rights and contentions, including, inter alia, his right to freedom of speech and expression and to make fair comment, proposed to blur and/or use generic fruit juice packaging by an e-mail dated 15th of March, 2024. Such proposal was accepted in principle by the plaintiff by its e-mail dated 19th March, 2024. In furtherance of the above, the defendant no.1 through its advocate’s e-mail dated 12th June, 2024 forwarded a video containing the generic fruit juice packaging proposed to be used in the video in place of packaging alleged to be identical and/or deceptively similar to that of the plaintiff," Justice Rao recorded in the order passed on June 18. The Court further recorded that the plaintiff has agreed to the changes made by Rathee in the video, at all places so as to remove any reference or use of 'REAL' trademarks, copyright, content, labels, packaging, advertisements etc. It added that since the changes have been made and accepted by Dabur, the company also does not have any objection to the video being circulated or published on social media."The parties have agreed that no useful purpose would be served by keeping the suit and the applications therein pending and the suit itself may be disposed of in terms of the settlement agreed between the plaintiff and the defendant," the Court said. .The dispute pertained to the use of 'REAL' trademarks by Rathee in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel. Dabur moved the Court taking objection to the same. In a detailed order passed in March 2023, another bench of Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur had ordered YouTube and other social media platforms to take down or block public access to the video in question.The Court had then said that the content creator had crossed the "lakshman rekha" and targeted Real by comparing it with fresh fruit juices and showing how it affects the health and hair growth of people, especially children..Advocates Debnath Ghosh, Biswaroop Mukherjee, Abir Debnath and Pradipta Bose appeared for Dabur India. Senior Advocate Ranjan Bachawat along with advocates Satyaki Mukherjee, Nakul Gandhi, Yash Vardhan Deora, Eshna Kumar and Mujeeb Rahman represented Dhruv Rathee.Advocates Neel Mason, Phiroze Edulji, Ankit Rastogi, Roustavi Mukherjee and Priyanka Bhattacharya represented YouTube. .[Read Order]