BharatPe claims PhonePe ‘turned turtle’ in court on its stand against usage of ‘Pe’

The PhonePe app (Representative image: Twitter/@PhonePe_)

The courtroom clash between digital payment players PhonePe and BharatPe has now turned into a war of words with BharatPe calling PhonePe’s statement on the injunction filed in the Bombay High Court (HC) a publicity stunt.

Moneycontrol had reported that on October 22 PhonePe moved the Bombay HC, filing an injunction against BharatPe for using the suffix ‘Pe’ in its new Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform’s name PostPe.

“We do not want to comment on any part of yesterday’s proceedings in the Bombay HC that have not been recorded in the order passed. In order to maintain the dignity of the legal process, we would await receipt of the order passed by the Hon’ble Bombay HC yesterday before embarking on a publicity stunt like PhonePe has indulged in,” said a BharatPe spokesperson.

PhonePe had said in its statement on October 22 that the injunction was later withdrawn to address certain observations made by the Bombay HC, with the liberty to file a fresh suit. Hence, PhonePe will be filing a fresh suit as the next step.

To this, the above-mentioned BharatPe spokesperson added, “The bottom line remains that PhonePe has withdrawn the suit it filed against our use of postpe. Needless to say, we will continue to strongly defend any legal action that PhonePe threatens to institute against us.”

“What is important to note is that in the Bombay High Court yesterday, PhonePe turned turtle as regards its previous stand before the Delhi High Court of emphasising on its so-called inventive word ‘Pe’.”

PhonePe claims that the ‘Pe’ suffix is the company’s registered trademark, and has been objecting to the usage by BharatPe since a while.

In September 2019 too, PhonePe had moved the Delhi HC against the competitor for using the suffix, seeking a similar injunction. In April this year, the Delhi High Court dismissed PhonePe’s plea while observing that BharatPe was not in violation of the trademark.

PhonePe withdrew the injunction plea later and moved Delhi HC for a full-fledged trial against BharatPe which is currently ongoing, apart from the fresh dispute in the Bombay HC.