[Coke Studio v Cook Studio] How the trademark dispute was settled before the Delhi High Court

A food blogging platform, mainly engaged in the production of videos and other cooking-related content called 'Cook Studio' recently agreed to change its name to 'Cook Pro 6', following its settlement with the Coca-Cola Company, which is the proprietor of the 'Coke Studio' trademark. [Nikhil Chawla v The Coca-Cola Company].Recognizing the parties' decision to reach a mutual settlement, Justice Pratibha M. Singh ordered, "The court on perusal of the terms of settlement has found the same to be lawful. There was no impediment in recording the settlement. Accordingly, the parties and all others acting for and on their behalf shall be bound by the settlement terms contained above. The suit is decreed in terms of the above terms recorded in paras 5(1) to 5(5) above".As per the terms of the settlement mentioned in a Joint Memo dated September 12, the plaintiff shall adopt the mark “Cook Pro 6” instead of the mark “Cook Studio” for the channels and platforms where the latter has been under use and shall completely transition to the mark “Cook Pro 6” and abandon the use of “Cook Studio” by November 30, 2022.Further, the settlement also stated that the defendant, Coca-Cola Company, shall not object to, nor otherwise interfere in any manner with the plaintiff’s use of the new mark and iterations of “Cook Pro 6".Moreover, it was agreed that plaintiff Nikhil Chawla, who runs the food b logging account in question, shall withdraw all trademark registration applications relating to “Cook Studio” and consequently withdraw the captioned suit.In view of the fact that the dispute was amicably resolved, the Court directed a complete refund of the Court fee to the plaintiff and decreed the suit accordingly..The Court was dealing with a suit instituted by Chawla after he received a notice from the defendant - Coca Cola Company asking him to desist from using the mark COOK STUDIO for his culinary related blog.Counsel appearing for Coca Cola had argued that use of the mark ‘Cook Studio’ would constitute infringement of its mark ‘Coke Studio’.However, the plaintiff had said that there is complete disparity in the logo and colour combination of the two marks and the works ‘Cook’ and ‘Studio’ are also generic words.At the last hearing, the Court had referred the trademark infringement dispute for mediation as it opined that an attempt should be made to amicably resolve the dispute first..Advocates Adarsh Ramanujan, Lzafeer Ahmad and Skanda Shekhar appeared for Chawla.The Coca-Cola Company was represented by advocates Anuradha Salhotra, Naval Kastia, Naval Bhardwaj and Priyanka Anand.Senior Advocate Rajeev Virmani acted as the mediator..[Read order].[Coke Studio v Cook Studio] Delhi High Court refers trademark infringement dispute for mediation