IP Battle of Biscuits: Oreo vs. Fabio

Intercontinental Great Brands, a unit of snacking major Mondelez International which makes Oreo Biscuits has brought up a trademark infringement case against FMCG giant Parle Products in Delhi High Court over the design of Parle’s Fabio biscuits. Intercontinental Great Brands has filed a trademark infringement case in the Delhi HC alleging that the design of Parle’s Fabio biscuit is ‘deceptively’ similar to that of Oreo. Intercontinental Great Brands LLC is a US-based company that manufactures and supplies packaged food products and is a unit of Mondelez International. Biscuits and snacks maker Parle Products launched Fabio biscuits in January 2020 in two flavours, while Oreo was launched in India by Mondelez nearly 10 years ago in 2011 marking its foray into the biscuit category in India. The colour scheme of the logo of both biscuits are also similar (white and blue), as is also depicted below:

 

 

Fabio does bear a resemblance to Oreos, being two dark biscuits sandwiching a white cream filling. Taking it a step further, Fabio biscuits are also stamped with a filigreed design, while both cookies sport blue and white branding. Parle Products launched Fabio biscuits in January 2020 in two flavours (Vanilla and Chocolate Cream), while Oreo was launched in India by Mondelēz in 2011. Oreo – introduced in 1912 by Nabisco, which later became Mondelēz International – is touted to be the largest selling premium cookie brand in the world, hitting $3.1bn in sales in 2019. Mondelēz says India is among Oreo’s top-five markets by volume and the fourth largest market for the cookie brand in the world. This is the latest case of alleged infringement in the highly competitive biscuit market in India.

 

The court will be hearing the matter on April 12. As per the documents, Mondelez International had asked for an earlier hearing date but the High Court has stuck to April 12. In similar cases last year, Britannia Industries had dragged Future Group and ITC to court over trademark infringement allegations for their various biscuit products.

 

Prior Cases of Trademark infringement in the Biscuits Industry:

 

IPR Infringement cases are not new to India’s biscuit industry. One year ago in February 2020, Britannia dragged Future Consumer to court alleging that the packaging of Future Consumer’s ‘Tasty Treat’ brand was deceptively similar to Britannia’s biscuits. In December 2020, Britannia moved Delhi High Court against the packaging of ITC’s Sunfeast Veda Digestive and Sunfeast 5-Seed Digestive biscuits, which it alleged were deceptively similar to its own Nutri Choice Hi-Fibre and Nutri Choice Digestive biscuits’ packaging. Prior to this, in 2016, ITC moved Delhi HC as well claiming trademark and copyright infringement by Britannia. It alleged that the packaging of Britannia’s Nutrichoice Digestive Zero biscuits are similar to that of ITC’s Sunfeast Farmlite Digestive All Good Biscuit. Britannia had told the court at the time that it was willing to consider changing the colour scheme of the packaging. ITC won this legal battle with the Delhi High Court asking Britannia not to sell its digestive biscuits, NutriChoice Zero.

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the Indian government. Examples of analysis performed within this article are only examples. They should not be utilized in real-world analytic products as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of any Indian government State.

The author is a 3rd-year law student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune.