Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam alone is permitted to use the brand name Tirupati Laddu.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which administers the world famous Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh, has won a legal battle to protect its ‘sacred’ trademark Tirupati laddu with a Chennai sweet shop chain giving up its claim over the holy Laddu tag.
TTD ( Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam ) alone is permitted to use the brand name ‘Tirupati Laddu,’ the Madras High Court has ruled while granting a decree in favour of the TTD on a civil suit filed against Chennai sweet shop.
TTD (Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam) had claimed that it had the Geographical Indications (GI) tag for making ‘Tirupati Laddus’ which were being given to pilgrims as ‘prasadam.’
Small time vendors as well as well-known big sweet outlets had been selling laddus using the name of ‘Tirupati.’ This could mislead people into believing that the original Tirupati laddus were being sold through these sources.
In the suit, it said the Ganga Sweets of Anna Nagar here was making and selling laddus in the name and style of ‘Tirupati laddu.’ These Laddus were made of the same ingredients, such as besan (Bengal gram flour), raisins, cashews and ghee that went into the preparation of the laddu at Tirupati, which was given to pilgrims as ‘prasad’.
Following which, the High Court in November last restrained the sweet stall from making and selling laddus that were deceptively similar to Tirupati laddu.
The defendants had come forward to settle the issue amicably by withdrawing the tag name ‘Tirupati’ from their laddus. When the matter came up for hearing before Justice R.S. Ramanathan on Tuesday, the respective counsels made their submissions. The court decreed in favour of the TTD while restraining the Ganga Sweets from infringing its registered GI mark.