PhonePe sues BharatPe for using ‘Pe’ suffix in BNPL App

Sanika Deshpande-

Published On: October 25, 2021 at 10:30 IST

PhonePe, which is owned by Walmart Inc, filed a Lawsuit against BharatPe for their Buy Now Pay Later App named “PostPe” for Trademark violation for using the suffix ‘Pe’.

The company is withdrawing the Plea which was filed earlier in Bombay High Court.

The Plea approached the Bombay High Court to seek an injunction to restrain the company which operates BharatPe from misusing the registered trademarks.

“To address certain observations made by the court in the pleadings filed by PhonePe, the suit was withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh suit challenging the adoption of mark ‘PostPe’/’postpe’ by Resilient Innovations.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 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, “ stated PhonePe. 

During the hearing, the Court observed that the mark adopted by PostPe is similar to the PhonePe mark and also thought that PostPe is a natural evolution of the word PhonePe.

In a statement, a BharatPe spokesperson stated, “In order to maintain the dignity of the legal process, we would await receipt of the order passed by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court yesterday,” the spokesperson said. “The bottom line remains that PhonePe has withdrawn the suit it had filed against our use of PostPe. Needless to say, we will continue to strongly defend any legal action that PhonePe threatens to institute against us.”

This is not the first tussle between the two firms. Both firms have been arguing over the use of ‘Pe’ since 2018.

The next hearing is to take place in December in the Delhi High Court.

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