PhonePe and BharatPe resolve trademark dispute through out-of-court settlement: Delhi High Court told

BharatPe and PhonePe have settled their trademark infringement dispute through an out-of-court settlement, the Delhi High Court was informed on Wednesday..Justice Sanjeev Narula was told that the parties are withdrawing the case they filed against each other. After examining the settlement agreement, the High Court decreed the suit in terms of the agreement. “Suit decreed in terms of the settlement agreement dated 17 May, 2024,” the Court said..PhonePe and BharatPe have been locked in a legal battle over the past few years. Both the Delhi High Court and the Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed PhonePe’s interim relief applications.In its suit before the Delhi High Court, PhonePe submitted that “Pe” was an "invented word" and was an essential, dominant and distinguishing feature of its registered trademarks in the name of "PhonePe". It was argued that the use of “BharatPe” by Resilient Innovations, which offered identical services, infringed its registered trademark and also amounted to passing off.However, the Court ruled that “PhonePe” and “BharatPe” were both composite marks and the plaintiff cannot claim exclusivity solely over the “Pe” suffix.It prima facie opined that there may be substance in the plaintiff's claim that the “Pe” suffix, which admittedly connotes the expression and meaning “pay", constituted the dominant part or the essential feature of the “PhonePe"..Advocates Mohit Goel, Sidhant Goel, Deepankar Mishra, Abhishek Kotnala and Karmanya Dev Sharma of Sim and San, led by advocate J Sai Deepak appeared for BharatPe (Resilient).Phone Pe was represented by Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, Sai Krishna and Shilpa Gupta of Sai Krishna & Associates and Ruby Singh Ahuja and Akanksha Thapa of Karanjawala & Co.