Happy Belly Bakes, a neighbourhood bakery in Bangalore, has won a long-running trademark dispute with Amazon in India after a civil court in Bangalore issued an order prohibiting the latter from using the label "Happy Belly" and removing products bearing a similar label from the e-commerce giant's online platform in India.
Shisham Hinduja, the director of Happy Belly Bakes, which offers cakes, brownies, cookies, and other baked goods in addition to operating food cafes and catering services, began creating chocolate in 2008 under the name "Regalar."
In 2010, as the company grew, Hinduja devised and adopted the name "Happy Belly Bakes." She also has the registered trademark "Happy Belly Bakes."
During the 2017 holiday season, Hinduja began receiving calls from customers inquiring if she had begun selling her products on Amazon, which she had not. Amazon also sells bakery items, dairy, and snacks under the global private level brand Happy Belly.
It unsuccessfully applied for the trademark "Happy Belly" in 2016 through Delaware-based Tootsie LLC. This prompted Hinduja to sue Amazon Seller Services, Cloudtail India, and Tootsie LLC, and on August 30, after more than four years in court, a verdict in Hinduja's favour was issued.
According to the ruling issued by additional city civil and sessions judge Padma Prasad, defendants Cloudtail India and Tootsie LLC are permanently barred from infringing or passing off the plaintiff's (Hinduja) trademark "Happy Belly Bakes" under the mark/name/label "Happy Belly" or with a name that is both visually and phonetically, deceptively similar for their business of manufacturing, selling, marketing or distributing.
Amazon Seller Services was also ordered to delete any products from its Indian portal that are deceptively similar to the plaintiff's trademark.
Amazon even alleged in court that Happy Belly Bakes lacked goodwill and reputation, according to the verdict. However, the court rejected this, stating that the "contention demonstrates defendants' arrogance."
"Trademark law has prevailed," Hinduja said after the order was issued.
The news comes at a time when Amazon is being investigated around the world for anti-competitive behaviour.
On September 14, 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the e-commerce business, stating in a statement that Amazon had engaged in activities that impeded competition and caused price rises across the state.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is also looking into it.
Cloudtail and another Amazon merchant, Appario, were raided by the CCI in April of this year on suspicion of violating competition legislation.