File picture of a man walking past the Hindustan Unilever Limited headquarters in Mumbai (Reuters)
A court has directed consumer goods maker Emami Ltd to give bigger rival Hindustan Unilever Ltd seven days notice before initiating legal proceedings over the 'Glow & Handsome' trademark, according to a July 6 order.
The Indian arm of global consumer giant Unilever said on July 2 it would rebrand its skin-lightening cream 'Fair & Lovely' to 'Glow & Lovely'.
The company said its skin cream for men will be called 'Glow & Handsome', but Emami said it had launched 'Glow & Handsome' digitally one week before HUL announced the name change.
Hindustan Unilever first applied for the trademarks, 'Glow & Lovely' and 'Glow & Handsome' in September 2018, application for which was rejected in 2019, and re-applied in June 2020, the company said in a petition to the high court in Maharashtra.
Hindustan Unilever and Emami did not respond to requests for comment and the court has set July 27 as the next hearing date.
The decision to rebrand its line of skin creams came after Hindustan Unilever faced criticism that the name 'Fair & Lovely' promoted negative stereotypes towards darker skin tones.