Unless you live in Bengaluru, you may not have heard of bakery Happy Belly Bakes, but this small business took e-commerce giant Amazon in a trademark battle and won in the city’s civil court. The copy of the order seen by Moneycontrol shows that the court ruled in favor of Happy Belly Bakes.
Happy Belly Bakes, a women-run business founded in 2008 by Sheesham Hinduja, sells cakes, brownies, cookies and other baked goods. It changed its name from Regler in 2010 and has been trademarked as ‘Happy Belly’ since 2016.
However, during the 2017 festive season, Hinduja started getting calls asking if they had started selling their products on Amazon, which they did not.
It was, in fact, one of several Amazon private labels Happy Belly launched in 2016. In some markets where it operates, it sells bakery items, dairy, crackers, snacks, spices and other items under this label.
Then, Hinduja’s Happy Belly Bakes Sue Against Amazon Seller Services, Cloudtail India (which was previously one of Amazon’s top sellers and was partially controlled by it; it has since ceased operations), and Tootsie LLC, which submitted a trademark application on Amazon’s behalf.
While Hinduja’s Happy Belly bakes were limited to Bengaluru only, Cloudtail and Tootsie claimed that they are using “Happy Belly” for their products across the globe.
In 2016, Amazon attempted to submit a trademark application for the name “Happy Belly” through Tootsie, but was unsuccessful.
Amazon has not sold products under the name Happy Belly in India since 2018.
On August 30 this year, after more than four years in court, a ruling was delivered in Hinduja’s favor, finding that Amazon had infringed on Happy Belly Bakes’ trademark.
According to the ruling, Amazon even claimed in court that Happy Belly Bakes lacked goodwill and reputation. Dismissing this, the court observed that the company has been operating since 2008 and “the dispute reflects the arrogance of the defendants”.
The court ruled in favor of Bengaluru Bakery, saying, “As such, the use of the trademark Happy Belly is certainly infringing and passing on the trademark of the plaintiff.” This permanently barred Cloudtail and Tootsie from using the name in the country, saying the business mark or logo is ‘deceptively similar’.
Additionally, it directed Amazon seller services to take down any item using the Happy Belly Bakes trademark available on Amazon’s marketplace in India.
Hinduja told Moneycontrol in a statement that the legal process is in place. Amazon’s questions had not been answered at the time of publication, and this story will be updated if they choose to respond.
While Hinduja’s Happy Belly Bakes won this case, Amazon has been accused several times of squeezing small businesses. It has been accused of undermining small businesses by using data from independent vendors on the platform and launching a product that competes with the seller in the US.
In India too it is on the radar of Competition Commission of India. In April this year, Reuters reported that Cloudtail and another Amazon seller, Apario, had been raided by the CCI over alleged violations of competition law related to allegations of promoting and prioritizing preferred sellers. Earlier, Amazon has also been accused of being involved in predatory pricing.
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