BharatPe, PhonePe amicably settle trademark disputes over 'Pe' suffix

Financial technology (fintech) firms PhonePe and BharatPe announced on Sunday that they have settled long-standing legal disputes regarding the use of the trademark with the suffix ‘Pe’ in their brand names.

The settlement concludes five-year-long legal disputes across multiple courts.

Both companies have decided to withdraw all opposition against each other in the Trade Marks Registry.

This will enable the fintech firms to proceed with the registration of their respective trademarks.

“Further, both organisations will undertake necessary steps to comply with the obligations under the settlement agreement in respect of all cases before the Delhi high court (HC) and Bombay HC,” the companies said in a joint statement.

In June 2021, PhonePe and Resilient Innovations, the brand name of BharatPe, went for a full trial over the use of the word ‘Pe’ (pronounced ‘pay’ and means ‘on’ in Hindi) after nearly two years of court proceedings.

PhonePe had filed a lawsuit against BharatPe claiming trademark rights over the suffix.

In October of the same year, PhonePe approached the Bombay HC seeking an injunction to restrain its rival Resilient Innovations from misusing PhonePe’s registered trademarks by using and promoting the marks ‘PostPe’/’postpe’, which is a subsidiary of BharatPe.

The same year, Resilient Innovations had filed six different petitions before the Delhi HC seeking cancellation and removal of the entry pertaining to some of PhonePe’s registered trademarks from the Trade Marks Registry, wherein it also sought interim relief against the use of such registered trademarks of PhonePe.

“I appreciate the maturity and professionalism shown by the management of both sides, working closely to resolve all outstanding legal issues and moving ahead to focus their energy and resources on building robust digital payment ecosystems,’’ said Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the board, BharatPe.

“I am glad that we have reached an amicable resolution in this matter.

"This outcome will benefit both companies to move forward and focus our collective energy on growing the Indian fintech industry as a whole,” Sameer Nigam, founder and chief executive officer, PhonePe, said.