Sakina Tashrifwala
Published on: September 15, 2022 at 22:43 IST
Following a settlement with the Coca-Cola Company, the owner of the “Coke Studio” trademark, a food blogging platform called “Cook Studio,” which mostly produces videos and other cooking-related content, recently decided to alter its name to “Cook Pro 6”.
Justice Pratibha M. Singh commanded, acknowledging the parties’ decision to come to a mutual settlement.
“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.”
According to the terms of the settlement outlined in a Joint Memo dated September 12th, the plaintiff shall use the mark “Cook Pro 6” instead of the mark “Cook Studio” for the channels and platforms where the latter has been in use.
By November 30th, 2022, the plaintiff shall have completely switched to the mark “Cook Pro 6” and stopped using the mark “Cook Studio.”
The settlement further stipulated that the Coca-Cola Company, the defendant, would not object to the plaintiff’s use of the new mark and subsequent iterations of “Cook Pro 6” or otherwise interfere with it in any way.
It was also decided that the owner of the disputed food blog, plaintiff Nikhil Chawla, would drop all trademark registration requests for “Cook Studio,” which would lead to the dismissal of the aforementioned lawsuit.
Due to the amicable resolution of the conflict, the court ordered that the plaintiff get a full refund of the court money and accordingly dismissed the case.
The Coca-Cola Company, the respondent, had sent Chawla a letter asking him to stop using the mark COOK STUDIO for his blog about cooking. Chawla responded by filing a lawsuit.
Coca-legal Cola’s team claimed that the use of the trademark “Cook Studio” would violate its trademark “Coke Studio.”
The plaintiff, however, claimed that the two marks’ logos and colour schemes are wholly dissimilar and that the words “Cook” and “Studio” are likewise generic terms.
The Court had referred the trademark infringement case for mediation at the previous hearing because it believed that an effort should be made to settle the case amicably 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.