Hyderabad's MagFast Beverages has won a legal battle against Multinational Company Pepsico to use the trademark 'Mountain Dew'.

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Magfast Beverages Chairman Syed Ghaziuddin on Monday claimed that they had already started selling packaged drinking water bottles called "Mountain Dew" way back in 2000, even before PepsiCo could do so.

According to ANI, Ghaziuddin said, “In 2000, I started a company to sell water to the people of Hyderabad as well as India. And that is when I started my idea into work as 'Mountain Dew' for my packed drinking water. Due to the quality of the product, this brand name has reached national recognition."

He added, "By 2003, PepsiCo Company of the US launched its soft drink product in India under the name 'Mountain Dew'. So the PepsiCo started investigating and searching for water packages with the same name. The PepsiCo Company filed a suit against our company in Delhi High court for infringement of their alleged trademark. But the Delhi High court refused their appeal and appointed an advocate commissioner. All my documents have been checked thoroughly by the advocate commissioner for the authenticity of the product."

Ghaziuddin appealed to the Supreme Court to shift the case to a Hyderabad civil court as he belonged to that jurisdiction as opposed to Delhi jurisdiction.

After the court's decision Ghaziuddin pointed out, "Here we fought for about 15 years, and after all the fight on December 31 last year, the claims by PepsiCo Company were all dismissed by the court."

According to the MagFast chairman, "Regarding compensation, in 2004 PepsiCo had filed an undertaking by stating that if the case filed is lost by the PepsiCo Company, then the company is ready to pay the required compensation to Mag Fast Beverages".

"This win is to all the Indian companies who believe in the Made in India campaign by Modi Government", concluded Ghaziuddin.

"PepsiCo is the registered owner of the trademark Mountain Dew in India since 1985 and continues to be so. PepsiCo's trademark rights in Mountain Dew have not been affected in any manner due to the orders passed by City Civil Court Hyderabad. PepsiCo has been advised that it has strong grounds for challenging the orders passed by City Civil Court Hyderabad in appeal, both on facts as well as on law, and we are in process of filing the Appeal before the Hon'ble High Court," said PepsiCo India spokesperson.

First Published:Oct 7, 2020 12:12 AM IST