YouTuber Dhruv Rathee Agrees To Remove Reference To ‘REAL’ Fruit Juice In His Video: Suit Filed By Dabur Before Calcutta HC Settled
Nearly a year-old litigation between Dabur India and popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee came to an end on June 18 with the latter agreeing to blur the packaging of Dabur's product, Real fruit juice, in his videos [Dabur India Limited vs Dhruv Rathee].
The video showed the impact of packaged fruit juices on health in comparison with fresh fruit juices. The video used the logo and trademark of "REAL" fruit juice.
Single-judge Justice Krishna Rao closed the suit filed by Dabur after recording the contentions of the parties with both agreeing to Rathee's suggestion to blur the packaging of Real fruit juice.
"The defendant no.1 without prejudice to his rights and contentions, including, inter alia, his right to freedom of speech and expression and to make fair comment, proposed to blur and/or use generic fruit juice packaging by an e-mail dated 15th of March, 2024. Such a proposal was accepted in principle by the plaintiff by its e-mail dated 19th March 2024. In furtherance of the above, the Defendant No.1 through its advocate’s e-mail dated 12th June 2024 forwarded a video containing the generic fruit juice packaging proposed to be used in the video in place of packaging alleged to be identical and/or deceptively similar to that of the plaintiff," Justice Rao recorded in the order passed on June 18.
The bench of Justice Krishna Rao noted, “Since the defendant no.1 is agreed to make that change at all places in the impugned video so as to remove any reference or use ‘REAL’ trademarks, copyright content, labels, packaging, advertisements as stated in paragraph 4 of the plaint, the plaintiff has no objections to the video being uploaded, published and/or broadcast with the aforesaid modifications.”
The dispute pertained to the use of 'REAL' trademarks by Rathee in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel. Dabur moved the Court taking objection to the same.
In a detailed order passed in March 2023, another bench of Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur had ordered YouTube and other social media platforms to take down or block public access to the video in question.
The Court then said that the content creator had crossed the "Lakshman rekha" and targeted Real by comparing it with fresh fruit juices and showing how it affects the health and hair growth of people, especially children.
Cause Title: Dabur India Limited v. Dhruv Rathee.
Appearance:
Appellant: Adv. Debnath Ghosh, Adv. Biswaroop Mukherjee, Adv. Abir Debnath and Adv. Pradipta Bose.
Respondent: Sr. Adv. Ranjan Bachawat, Adv. Satyaki Mukherjee, Adv. Nakul Gandhi, Adv. Yash Vardhan Deora, Adv. Eshna Kumar, Adv. Mujeeb Rahman, Adv. Neel Mason, Adv. Phiroze Edulji, Adv. Ankit Rastogi, Adv. Roustavi Mukherjee, Adv. Priyanka Bhattacharya And Adv. Amee Rana.