Bisk Farm secures legal victory over Parle in trademark dispute

The Calcutta High Court ruled in favor of Bisk Farm, arguing that Parle's use of 'Top Gold Star' infringes on their registered trademark 'Top Gold'. Bisk Farm has been using the 'Top Gold' brand since 2005 and holds the necessary legal protections. The company accused Parle of 'passing off' their product as similar to Bisk Farm's

Kolkata-headquartered SAJ Food Products Pvt Ltd, a leading manufacturer of biscuits, snacks, and bakery products under the popular brand ‘Bisk Farm’, was granted an ex-parte injunction from the Calcutta High Court, restraining Parle Biscuits from selling and marketing their new biscuit product under the brand name ‘Top Gold Star.’

Interestingly, Bisk Farm had adopted the mark ‘Top Gold’ for one of its biscuits in 2005 and secured statutory protection through trademark and copyright registrations, company officials said. SAJ is the only entity registered and/or applied for the mark ‘Top Gold’ before the Trademark Registry. Recently the company had found that Parle launched a new product in the same category under the name ‘Top Gold Star.’

There is no doubt that Bisk Farm is the prior and only registered user of the mark ‘Top Gold’ in Class 30 as on this date. Parle has purported to infringe the registered mark of Bisk Farm’s ‘Top Gold’ by way of malafide adoption of ‘Top Gold Star’ wherein the terms ‘Top’ and ‘Gold’ are written in larger font and the term ‘Star’ is written in smaller font. This is structurally, phonetically, and/or deceptively similar to the Top Gold mark of Bisk Farm and is used in relation to the identical goods, i.e, biscuits. Bisk Farm contended that this is a clear act of passing off and had approached the Calcutta High Court to restrain Parle Biscuits from using the ‘Top Gold Star’ mark. On July 19, 2024, Justice Krishna Rao was pleased to pass a stay order restraining Parle from selling and marketing their product under the ‘Top Gold Star’ brand name until August 27, 2024.

Vijay Singh, Managing Director, Bisk Farm said, “We have a distinguished history of introducing distinct biscuits, each marked by its own unique identity, all of which have been well-received by consumers. We are determined to protect our intellectual property rights and brand integrity which has been carefully built over two decades by our late founder KD Paul. We are thankful to the honourable court for issuing an ex-parte protective order against this action of trademark infringement by Parle.”