Beware! Oreo sues Indian biscuit company, sellers should pay attention to this kind of infringement

The maker of Oreo biscuits has filed a case against Parle Products in the Delhi High Court, alleging that Fabio biscuits produced by the Indian biscuit company are "similar" in appearance to Oreo biscuits .

Oreo cookies were first launched in India about a decade ago , while Parle Products launched Fabio in January 2020. The two cookies look very similar, so Oreo believes that the latter is suspected of infringement.

Competition in India's biscuit market is very fierce, and related trademark infringement cases occur frequently. Infringement disputes involving biscuit products mainly focus on several aspects, such as the biscuit's outer packaging design, biscuit's appearance design, and brand name.

Early last year, Britannia Industries filed a trademark infringement case against Future Consumer, alleging that the Kishore Biyani -led retail company had copied the packaging of several of its biscuit brands.

Britannia Industries Ltd. also objected to Future Consumer's use of the "Good Times" name on its product packaging on the grounds that it sounded similar to Britannia's "Good Days" brand ( see Oreo and Yue Li Yue for related cases ) .

Not only biscuits, but also other categories such as clothing and toys are prone to infringement disputes. Infringement is a major problem that plagues cross-border e-commerce sellers. It is observed that many sellers have suffered losses due to suspected infringement of their products, such as forced removal of products from shelves or detention of goods.

Not long ago, Chinese customs seized a batch of T-shirts that were about to be shipped overseas. These T-shirts were suspected of infringement because they were printed with Mickey Mouse patterns. After contacting the brand to confirm the infringement, customs staff detained the products in accordance with the law and took relevant measures.

In terms of product patents, both China and India and other countries have strict review and management systems, and in terms of import and export trade, state supervision is even more stringent.

Therefore, merchants engaged in cross-border trade must pay special attention to infringement issues. Directly misappropriating product designs from big brands or having similarities with product designs from big brands will involve infringement.

Cross-border e-commerce

E-commerce platform

E-commerce market