PhonePe drags BharatPe to Bombay High Court over ‘Pe’ suffix in ‘PostPe’

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In a continuing dispute between payments companies PhonePe and BharatPe on the usage of the ‘Pe’ suffix, PhonePe on October 22 said that it moved the Bombay High Court (HC) on the matter.

“PhonePe sought an injunction to restrain Resilient Innovations i.e. BharatPe from misusing PhonePe's registered trademarks by using and promoting the marks 'PostPe' / 'postpe',” the company said in a statement.

On October 6, BharatPe had announced its foray into the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) segment with the launch of PostPe. However, this is not the first time that PhonePe has dragged BharatPe to court over the usage of the suffix.

In September 2019, 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.

On the fresh plea in Bombay HC, PhonePe said that a hearing was held on October 22. “During the hearing, the HC observed that the mark PostPe adopted by Resilient Innovations is so phonetically, structurally and visually similar to PhonePe mark that he also thought that PostPe/postpe is a natural evolution of the word PhonePe and emanated from PhonePe,” the company added.

However, the suit was withdrawn to address certain observations made by the Bombay HC, with the liberty to file a fresh suit.

“We will, accordingly, file a fresh suit and continue to ardently oppose the use of the 'PostPe' / 'postpe' marks,” read the company statement.