Ujala wins counterfeit battle

In a ruling dated September 19, 2017, the Commercial High Court of the Western Province granted a landmark interim injunction, which was sought by the Indian company, Jyothy Laboratories Ltd. 

The matter, which was held before High Court Judge, Mahinda Samayawardhena, was declared to be a “textbook case of violation of intellectual property rights”.
Jyothy Laboratories Ltd, an Indian multi-product company and leader in local household care industry, has been a victim of mass counterfeiting in Sri Lanka. Its flagship brand Ujala, introduced a dye-based fabric whitener under the names Ujala and Ujala Supreme. Its product has been exported to a number of countries including Sri Lanka, where it has been in the market for well over 20 years.Earlier this year, it was discovered that the local companies, Jyothy Laboratories Lanka, Buhary Segu Naina and Buhary Ali Sabuni, which were shareholders and directors of Fa Impex Private Limited, which imported the Ujala brand liquid blue from the plaintiff in India and sold in Sri Lanka, were illegally importing and manufacturing counterfeit Ujala products and selling them to the local market.The counsel for the plaintiff was led by Manoj Bandara with Lakshana Perera and Hasitha Gamage, who were instructed by Sudath Perera Associates. The plaintiff declared that the local companies infringed upon the copyrighted bottle design and the label of Ujala along with the rights of its trademark name. The defendants’ counsel was led by Romesh De Silva, P.C, with Shanaka Cooray instructed by Chandrakumar De Silva. The defendants, Buhary Segu Naina and Buhary Ali Sabuni, being the alter egos of Fa Impex Private Limited, sold Ujala products in Sri Lanka. However, it was noted that Jyothy Laboratories stopped its imports to Sri Lanka prior to the year 2011, thus none of the sellers were permitted to sell its genuine product with its Ujala trademark. 

Furthermore, the almost identical names of the plaintiff’s and defendants’ companies, which the courts acknowledged, made an impression that the defending company is a subsidiary of Jyothy Laboratories. Thereby making it very easy to deceive consumers by leading them to think they were buying the genuine product from the genuine source.
The defendants had also confessed to illegally manufacturing Ujala products without the knowledge of Jyothy Laboratories.