PepsiCo cannot use 'Mountain Dew' brand name, says city civil court

The battle for the brand name `Mountain Dew` with PepsiCo has been awarded to MagFast Beverages company, but PepsiCo are in the process to file an appeal before the Hon’ble High Court.

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Hyderabad: The battle for the brand name `Mountain Dew` with PepsiCo has been awarded to MagFast Beverages company. The Chairman Syed Ghaziuddin of the Hyderabad-based company on Monday said that they started selling packaged drinking water named `Mountain Dew' in the year 2000.

He said he started a company to sell water and started his idea of brand name 'Mountain Dew' for the packaged drinking water. And in 2003, the US-based PepsiCo launched its soft drink product in India by the same name. 

"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 packaged drinking water. By 2003, the PepsiCo company of USA launched its soft drink product in India under the name `Mountain Dew`."

"PepsiCo started investigating and searching for water packages with the same name. PepsiCo then 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," he said.

Ghaziuddin said that he appealed to the Supreme court to transfer the case to Hyderabad city civil court from Delhi and so the case was transferred.

"Here, we fought for about 15 years, and after all the fight on December 31 2019 all the claims by PepsiCo company were dismissed by the court," he said.

"Though we won the case in December itself, I waited till now for the court order. And now regarding compensation, in 2004 the PepsiCo has 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," he added.

Whereas PepsiCo's India spokesperson officially replied to this court decision. He said, "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."

He added, "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."