Hindustan Unilever's increased IR pursuits raise fears for small businesses

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 3, 2018

This year, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has launched a legal campaign against copyright infringement and has filed around 30 intellectual property rights (IPR) cases against Indian businesses.

The Anglo-Dutch fast moving consumer goods company HUL, which produces many beauty and personal care products, is cracking down on smaller brands that it believes are profiting from a likeness to HUL’s own offerings. The business wants to prevent other, smaller Indian companies from using similar logos, trademarks, and product descriptions and so it has been filing on average one IPR case a week since the beginning of the year.

“We are aggressive in protecting our intellectual property rights (IPR) and take prompt action whenever our rights are violated by third parties,” an HUL spokesperson said in a statement. “Whenever we become aware of any infringing activity, we promptly take appropriate action.” Many of the cases have been resolved by out of court settlements with payments ranging from Rs two to ten lakh and agreements to cease production of the offending product.

HUL’s tenacious campaign to seek out smaller businesses infringing on its copyright could start a trend. “We haven’t seen a company of HUL’s size being so aggressive with smaller companies,” Vishal Maheshwari, a managing partner of the law firm VM Legal, told Livemint. “Now, it is not only taking legal action against small companies, but is also going behind third-party manufacturers, who may have supplied bottles or other packaging material. This is very surprising.” HUL’s decision to actively defend its copyright could inspire other large FMCG businesses to do the same, especially as HUL has had many promising results and is showing no signs of slowing down.