The Madras High Court on Thursday implicated that the yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd is “chasing profits by exploiting people’s fear and panic” to sell its immunity booster tablets Coronil, and has fined a penalty of INR 10 lakh on it.
In a trademark infringement case, the court refused to vacate the interim injunction restraining Patanjali from using the name Coronil for its tablet.
Arudra Engineers Private Ltd, a city-based company filed a case against Patanjali Ayurved Ltd as Arudra had registered the trademarks “Coronil-92 B and Coronil-213 SPL” in 1993 and still hold rights over them till 2027.
The company sells an anti-corrosion product – a chemical agent that undertakes to sanitise and clean heavy industrial machinery and containment units at factories.
Apart from Patanjali, the other defendant in the case was Divya Yog Mandir Trust that made the tablet.
The court order came in the petition filed by Patanjali and Divya Yog to vacate the interim directive against the use of the name Coronil for its tablet.
The court stated: “Insofar as costs are concerned, the defendants have repeatedly projected that they are Rs 10,000 crore company. However, they are still chasing further profits by exploiting the fear and panic among the general public by projecting a cure for the coronavirus, when their ‘Coronil Tablet’ is not a cure but rather an immunity booster for cough, cold and fever.”
“The defendants must realize that there are organisations which are helping the people in this critical period without seeking recognition and it would only be appropriate that they are made to pay costs to them,” it ruled.
The court ordered Patanjali and Divya Yog to jointly pay INR 5 lakh each to the Dean of Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai, and the Dean of Government Yoga and Naturopathy Medical College & Hospital, Chennai.
In both these organisations, the treatment is accorded free of cost without any claim to either trademark, trade name, patent, or design, but only with service as a motto, the court said.
“Costs to be paid on or before 21.08.2020, and a memo in this regard, to be filed before the Registry, High Court Madras, on or before 25.08.2020,” it ordered.