PhonePe files suit on BharatPe claiming trademark infringement over usage of ‘Pe’ as a suffix

PhonePe - an Indian e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company has filed a suit on BharatPe over the use of the ‘Pe’ (read as ‘Pay’) suffix in its name. Walmart-owned Flipkart’s PhonePe which is based out of Bengaluru has filed a petition in Delhi High Court asking the court to restrain BharatPe from using the name.

PhonePe had been in talks with BharatPe from August 2018 to drop ‘Pe’ from its name. However, BharatPe made only a few alterations such as changing the colour of the fonts etc. in its logo. PhonePe therefore filed a petition in Delhi High Court.

The present suit has been filed seeking an injunction restraining infringement of trademark, passing off and damages. According to PhonePe, the use of ‘Pe’ by BharatPe is an infringement of its trademarks rights and is misleading. Customers may conclude both companies are linked to each other.

Both PhonePe and BharatPe are leading players on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform. PhonePe has been in the business for long and claims while BharatPe is a comparatively new entrant into the same digital payments space and is a Delhi-based company.