The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on May 27, 2026 substantially upheld the interim injunction granted in favour of Exide Industries Limited against Amara Raja Energy and Mobility Limited in the trade dress dispute concerning Amara Raja’s ‘ELITO’ battery range.
The dispute arose after Amara Raja launched its ‘ELITO’ range of automotive batteries in a predominantly red coloured trade dress:
Exide alleged that the product adopted a combination of distinctive features closely associated with its automotive battery products sold under the brand “Exide”, including a predominantly red coloured trade dress, and filed a suit before the Intellectual Property Rights Division of the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta in IP-COM/18/2025.
On July 25, 2025, the Hon’ble Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur of the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta granted an interim injunction in Exide’s favour holding that Exide had made out a prima facie case and restrained Amara Raja from dealing in any product in a predominantly red coloured trade dress or any product similar to those of Exide’s.
The Hon’ble Court had held that Exide’s long standing use of the colour red in a distinctive trade dress had generated protectable goodwill and reputation in the automotive battery market. The Hon’ble Court held that predominantly red coloured products are synonymous with Exide when it comes to automotive batteries.
Amara Raja had challenged such judgment and the Division Bench of the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta comprising of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi affirmed the injunction on April 2, 2026 in TEMPAPO-IPD/7/2025. The Division Bench accepted Exide’s case that the dispute concerned the cumulative adoption of multiple source identifying features and the overall commercial impression created by the competing products, including the predominant red colour in Amaras Raja’s products which was bound to create confusion in the market place.
Amara Raja further sought to appeal the judgment of the Division Bench of the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta, before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, by way of a Special Leave Petition. The Bench of the Hon’ble Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Hon’ble Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was not inclined to interfere with the orders of injunction but to balance equities was keen to allow Amara Raja to dispose of the impugned products and packaging already in the market. The Bench called upon Amara Raja to disclose quantities of the impugned product and packaging already in the market. On the appropriate figures being furnished, by its order dated May 27, 2026 in SLP (Civil) No. 18549/2026, the Hon’ble Supreme Court modified the injunction only in part to permit distributors, franchisees and retailers of Amara Raja to sell existing red coloured ELITO batteries that had already entered the market before the Hon’ble Division Bench judgment dated April 2, 2026, and permitted sale of batteries already manufactured with certain modifications in packaging. It otherwise declined to interfere with the injunctions granted against Amara Raja from use of the impugned packaging, predominantly red coloured products/ packaging and branding elements pending adjudication of the suit. The Hon’ble Court simultaneously directed destruction of red coloured empty cartons.
Beyond the limited modification, however, the Hon’ble Court declined to dilute the injunction in any other respect. The ruling leaves intact the core interim protection granted to Exide against the impugned “ELITO” trade dress and reinforces Exide’s claim of exclusivity over predominantly red coloured trade dresses in the automotive battery industry, pending adjudication of the suit.
Amara Raja was represented by Senior Advocates Mr. C. Aryama Sundaram, Mr. Shyam Divan, and Mr. Sidharth Luthra, briefed by Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR.
Exide Industries was represented by Senior Advocates Mr. Mukul Rohatgi and Mr. Neeraj Kishan Kaul who were briefed by Ms. Misha Rohatgi, AOR, law firm S. Majumdar & Co. and Advocates Mr. Rishi Agrawala, Ms. Suhrita Majumdar, Mr. Kironjit B. Majumder, Mr. Ankur Saigal, Ms. Saijal Arora and Mr. Dipro Dawn.
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