Nivea Vs. Ponds – Marketing Blues

Looking to protect the signature trade dress of its NIVEA products, Beiersdorf AG filed a lawsuit alleging trademark infringement, unfair trade practice, disparagement and dilution against Unilever subsidiary Hindustan Unilever Limited ('HUL') before the High Court of Delhi (Beiersdorf AG v. Hindustan Unilever Limited (CS (COMM) 300/2021).

The NIVEA trade dress

A flat can of cream bearing a distinctive blue colour and the word 'NIVEA' in white is a trade dress that Beiersdorf claims was created for it in 1925. The distinctive blue colour is identified as 'Pantone 280C' and used by the company as a source identifier. Registrations for the 'NIVEA' trademark and its variants exist in more than 175 countries. The first Indian registration for 'NIVEA' dates back to 1943 in class 3 and subsequently, the mark has been registered in various other classes including several label marks featuring the word NIVEA over a blue background in Class 3 (Nos. 1329991, 2232698, 2856286