Bombay HC Stops Balaji Wafers From Selling Rumbles Brand, Calls It an 'Obvious Imitation' of Frito-Lay's Chips

Mumbai, May 5: The Bombay High Court has stopped Balaji Wafers from selling potato wafers by calling them an 'obvious imitation' of Frito-Lay's chips. According to a Mumbai Mirror report, American brand Frito-Lay along with its Indian partners and distributers had approached HC against Balaji on the design of their potato wafers sold under the brand Lay’s Maxx Chips/Ruffles. While Balaji, on the other hand, sold a similar looking product under the name Rumbles.

According to Frito-Lay's, they invented the wave-like design of its wafers and had it registered in 2012. The brand claims that as their popularity grew, they made some innovation by making the deeper ridges and crusts throughout the surface. The HC advocates argued that it is because of the peculiar design that it made the chips crunchier. PepsiCo Withdraws Lawsuit Against Indian Potato Farmers Over Cultivation of Its Patented Seeds.

The court further said in some instances, the geometrical changes to a product don't affect the quality of the product. But in the case of a wafer, design changes could affect the texture and thus changing the quality of the product.

Last year, PepsiCo had filed a case against local farmers in Gujarat over intellectual property rights infringement, which it eventually withdrew. The company had alleged that the farmers were cultivating without permission a specific variety of potato, which it had developed for its Lay’s potato chips.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 11, 2020 02:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).