BharatPe and PhonePe have settled their long-standing trademark dispute that revolves around the ‘Pe’ suffix. On May 26, the two platforms announced that they had settled all long-standing trademark disputes in an amicable way.
Since the last five years, both the unicorns have been a part of this long legal dispute that went through multiple courts. As per a joint statement released by the two companies, all open judicial proceedings will end with these settlements.
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As a next step, parties have already taken steps to withdraw all oppositions against each other from the trademark registry, which will help them proceed with the registration of their respective marks. Further, both organizations will undertake to take other necessary steps to comply with the obligations under the settlement agreement in respect of all cases before the Hon'ble Delhi High Court and the Hon'ble Bombay High Court.
In June 2021, Resilient Innovations (brand name BharatPe) and PhonePe went for a full trial with regards to the usage of the word 'Pe'. PhonePe served BharatPe with a cease-and-desist letter in 2018, requesting that they stop using the brand name "BharatPe" with the letter "Pe" written in Devanagari script. As a result, BharatPe stopped providing its services in that particular manner and began utilizing just "BharatPe. Both parties have moved to various courts, including the Supreme Court, until the dispute is settled amicably.
Rajnish Kumar, Chairman of the Board, BharatPe, said, “This is a positive development for the industry. 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.’’
Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of PhonePe, added, ‘’I am glad that we have reached an amicable resolution in this matter. This outcome will encourage both companies to move forward and focus our collective energy on growing the Indian fintech industry as a whole. I would like to thank Mr. Rajnish Kumar and his team for working with us to get to this positive outcome."
