Amul is the 8th largest milk processor in the world handling 10.3 million metric tonne milk a year.
Amul Dairy (also called Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited) had filed a case with the Federal Court of Canada over trademark infringement by a group called ‘Amul Canada.’ The fraudulent group is run by four individuals, namely, Chandu Das, Akash Ghosh, Mohit Rana, and one Patel.
What was the copyrights case?
As per CanLII, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd moved the Federal Court of Canada against Amul Canada and four others – Mohit Rana, Akash Ghosh, Chandu Das and Patel for allegedly copyright infringement. As per reports, in January 2020, Amul learnt that the group had copied Amul’s logo and tagline ‘Amul: The Taste of India’ to create a profile on LinkedIn. Despite Amul’s several attempts, the four individuals and Amul Canada never responded to Amul’s notices, leading to a court battle. Post Amul’s court victory, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board of Canada granted Amul trademark status. Anand Milk Union Ltd (Amul) is India’s largest food marketing organisation which approximately procures 23 million lt/day from 18600 village milk cooperative societies with an annual turnover of $5.1 billion.
Finally, in an ex parte judgment, the court awarded damages worth Canadian $32,733 in favour of Amul. Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation’s MD RS Sodhi said the court victory “was possible only because we were alert and provided the supporting documents substantiating our claims.” He said GCMMF, which markets Amul products and those of other cooperatives, was exporting milk products to USA for 22 years and started exporting Amul Kool, ice cream and dairy snacks to Canada 2 years ago.
