Delhi HC restrains Parle from using FAB!O, rules in favour of OREO

The Delhi High Court has recently restrained Parle Products from using names "FABIO" or "FAB!O" for its chocolate biscuits in a trademark infringement lawsuit moved by Mondelez-owned Intercontinental Great Brands (IGB), for violation of its Oreo biscuit trademark.

As per the Delhi High Court, the brand names for biscuits and cookies, ending in 'IO' or 'EO' are rare in market and a customer of average intelligence is likely to presume an association between OREO cookies and Parle's 'FAB!O' biscuits.

In an interim order, Justice C Hari Shankar observed that the manner in which Parle in its advertisements declared that Fab!o is required to be pronounced as fa-bee-yo “amounts to a candid acknowledgement” that it is required to be pronounced like Oreo.

As per media reports, the court concluded that the Parle, has, prima facie, infringed Intercontinental Great Brands' registered trademark of 'OREO'. The court has further restrained Parle from using the FABIO or FAB!O mark, and barred it from manufacturing, packing or selling its vanilla cream filled chocolate sandwich biscuits in the offending trade dress/pack.

Mondelez launched Oreo in India about a decade back. The brand has occassionally experimented with flavours and the format. Going by the company’s claims, India is among its top-five markets by volume. India is now the 4th largest market for OREO in the world.

Parle launched Fabio in early 2020. The new flavours include the classic Vanilla and chocolate cream.