A local court has temporarily prohibited Radico Khaitan from selling its Kashmyr vodka brand, amid a trademark spat with Piccadily Agro Industries.

In a stock exchange filing yesterday (24 September), Piccadily Agro said it had filed a commercial suit against the Rampur whisky distiller in July.

Piccadily Agro alleges Radico Khaitan has used an "infringing mark and/or passing off ‘Kashmyr’ for the vodka products which is similar" to its own Cashmere and Cashmir registered trademarks.

The Indri whisky owner produces a vodka under its Cashmir brand. It first launched the product in 2015 under the trademark Cashmere. It then registered the Cashmir trademark for the brand in 2023.

Radico Khaitan launched its Kashmyr vodka at the end of July. Piccadily Agro claims that given Kashmyr is also a vodka, is sold at a similar price, and "is phonetically similar to the company’s registered marks", it is "likely to cause consumer confusion".

In its filing, Piccadily Agro said the local district court of Haryana had permitted its suit application and that it had agreed to give an "interim injunction" that restrains Radico Khaitan from selling products under the Kashmyr brand.

While the outcome of the suit is still pending, a statement from the court shared in Piccadily Agro's filing said that, in the interim, Radico Khaitan has been "restrained from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, advertising and/ or promoting and/or using the mark 'Kashmyr' in isolation and/or inconjunction with any other prefix/suffix and/or any other mark, name, label, device that is deceptively similar/ infringing to the plaintiff's trademarks 'Cashmir', 'Cashmere' and/or their variants".

The court added Radico Khaitan was also prohibited "from in any manner using the mark 'Kashmyr' and/or passing off the mark 'Kashmyr' as the plaintiff's trade
marks 'Cashmir' and/ or 'Cashmere' or using any such mark that may result in unfair
competition, dilution and violation of common lawrights of the plaintiff in any manner whatsoever till the decision of present suit".

An official company spokesperson for Radico Khaitan said it would not provide "detailed comment" on the issue given “the matter is currently sub-judice".

They added: "We have filed a petition in the Hon’ble High Court and remain confident in the due process, while being fully respectful of the ongoing proceedings.”