Thread by @TheGameOfBrands

Brand Stories- Story No. 1

1) When Sunfeast Yippee! took Maggi to Court over "Magic Masala"

#throwback #story #India

2) Back in 2010, ITC entered the instant noodle market with its brand Sunfeast Yippee! . It started with two flavours- "Magic Masala" and "Classic Masala".

3) The flavours started gaining a lot of popularity and within 3 years time Sunfeast Yippee! had captured 12.5% market share in the instant noodles market.

4) Seeing the success of its competitor, Nestle launched a new similar sounding variant of Maggi called "Maggi Magical Masala" in 2013.

ITC was unhappy about it and filed a suit against Nestle in the Madras High Court to restrain it from using the words "Magical Masala".

5) ITC claimed that while Nestle's Maggi was a market leader, it was threatened by ITC's Sunfeast Yippee! brand quickly taking up market share.

6) It accused Nestle of using a similar sounding expression in its product to confuse the customer and pass off its brand instead of the Yippee! brand.

7) The court battle continued and in 2015 The Madras High Court passed an interim order restraining Nestle from using the words "Magical Masala" till the disposal of the case.

8) However, the Madras High Court issued the final order in June 2020. And the order was passed in the favour of Nestle!

The High Court ruled that the words "Magic" and "Masala" were common English and Indian words and hence no one can claim monopoly over them.

9) The High Court also observed that it was common to use these words in the packaged food industry and in fact the expression "Magic Masala" was first adopted by Lays for its potato chips.

10) So, Maggi won the battle and that is how the seven-year long dispute ended!

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#maggi #sunfeast #brands