Britannia Industries wants Tiger back within 60 days

BRITANNIA Industries (BIL), through its solicitors, has shot off a letter to Groupe Danone seeking unconditional return of the Tiger trademark within 60 days. This comes even as Danone, which jointly owns Britannia along with Nusli Wadia, has indicated conditional settlement of the intellectual property rights dispute involving the brand. Backed by legal advice, Britannia’s IPR committee — which includes K K Dadiseth, Nimesh Kampani, Vijay Kelkar and Avijit Deb apart from Vinita Bali and chairman Wadia — decided to seek remedial action on the matter in a time-bound manner keeping the interests of the other stakeholders in mind, sources said. The Danone representatives on the company board are not part of the IPR committee as they are deemed to be an interested party in the dispute. It is learnt that Danone’s Asia Pacific headquarters had initially signalled unconditional return of the trademark when the issue was first raised with them. However, the settlement went into a loop with Danone deciding to shift the Singapore HQ back to Paris and its long serving Asian head Simon Israel retiring last year. Interestingly, in its letter to Danone, the committee has also enclosed a format of the deed of transfer the French partner should adhere to while returning Tiger. The Indian company appears set to walk the full distance in protecting its IPR from the hands of a multinational partner. A dispute arose when Britannia discovered that Danone had registered its indigenously developed affordable nutrition brand Tiger in many international markets without the knowledge of the Indian company. Tiger has played a key role in providing market access to Danone in developing markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The latest development should be viewed in the backdrop of the larger shareholder issues between the Wadia Group and Danone on its future partnership with the French partner unveiling solo plans to tap the dairy and water businesses in India. When contacted, Britannia MD, Vinita Bali, confirmed that IPR committee has sent a letter asking Danone to return the trademark and execute the deed of assignment unconditionally. An e-mail to Danone remained unanswered. It is learnt that Danone now wants Britannia to effect a licensing deal before returning the trademark to ensure continuing use of the trademark in many markets like Indonesia, which is touted as one of Danone’s success stories in Asia-Pacific. It is learnt that Britannia is open to a licensing deal once Danone returns the property without conditions. “We believe there has to be a sequence to resolving the dispute, and it should start with Danone returning the trademark ownership,” sources said.

Danone believes it’s in line with resolution
DANONE believes that it is using Tiger in global markets in line with a 1998 Britannia board resolution governing intellectual property rights. However, Britannia thinks that the specific resolution was a “one-way traffic” pertaining only to the Indian company using Danone’s properties in the local market and not vice versa. Hence a settlement solely within the framework of the 1998 resolution cannot arise, sources said. Sources said Britannia was surprised that a leading MNC like Danone, which had four representatives on the board including three operating mangers from Asia-Pacific, kept it in the dark about the French giant rolling out Tiger biscuits and milk drinks in the region till Britannia stumbled on it.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes
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