PhonePe takes BharatPe to court for ‘Pe’ suffix in ‘PostPe’

BENGALURU: Flipkart-owned PhonePe has taken competitor BharatPe to court over the use of the ‘Pe’ suffix in the latter’s newly launched ‘buy now pay later’ product, ‘PostPe’.

The company has approached the Bombay high court seeking an injunction to restrain Resilient Innovations Pvt. Ltd., parent of BharatPe, from misusing its registered trademark ‘PhonePe’ which includes the ‘Pe’ suffix.

“PhonePe had approached the Hon'ble Bombay High Court seeking an injunction to restrain Resilient Innovations from misusing PhonePe's registered trademarks by using and promoting the marks 'PostPe' / 'postpe',” said PhonePe in a statement on Saturday.

“During the hearing, the Hon'ble Court observed that the mark PostPe adopted by Resilient Innovations is so phonetically, structurally and visually similar to PhonePe mark that he also thought that PostPe/postpe is a natural evolution of the word PhonePe and emanated from PhonePe,” said PhonePe on the hearing held on 22 October on the matter.

This comes four months after PhonePe withdrew its injunction plea against BharatPe over the use of the suffix ‘Pe’ as it was preparing to take on the latter in a full trial.

The withdrawal of the injunction came after the Delhi high court dismissed PhonePe’s interim plea in April. PhonePe had filed a commercial lawsuit against BharatPe, alleging violation of its trademark and claiming exclusivity on the ‘Pe’ suffix in May 2019 in the Delhi high court.

The company had also sought an injunction against BharatPe over the use of ‘Pe’ in its brand and app names. Both the firms have been arguing about the use of ‘Pe’ since 2018.

"…to address certain observations made by the Court in the pleadings filed by PhonePe, the suit was withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh suit challenging the adoption of mark PostPe/postpe by Resilient Innovations. Accordingly, while allowing the withdrawal of the suit and keeping the rights and contentions of the parties open, the Hon'ble Court granted PhonePe the liberty to file a fresh suit. We will, accordingly, file a fresh suit and continue to ardently oppose the use of the 'PostPe' / 'postpe' marks,” PhonePe had said.