In this ever-growing state of awareness, the manufacturers of beauty products have finally realized that use of terms like ‘fair’, ‘whitening’, ‘lightening’, ‘dark’, etc. is not a way to go about naming or promoting their products. Manufacturers of such beauty and grooming products also had announced that they would air advertisement showing the transformation of skin tones or even a skin shade card. A lot of opposition had been taken up in the past few years against their ad campaigns and product names. Last year even celebrities indulged in this criticism with a few even declining to appear in their ads. This must have been the trigger point for the manufacturers. After years of discriminatory ad campaigns and branding of grooming and beauty products, the change is finally here, alas not without controversy.
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) had announced last week that they had decided to drop ‘fair’ from the name of their product ‘Fair and Lovely’. Days after which they announced that they would name their product formerly known as ‘Fair and Lovely’ as ‘Glow and Handsome’. This upset another grooming product giant, Emami. Emami is the manufacturer and distributor of the product formerly known as ‘Fair and Handsome’. Emami had last week announced that it would be changing the product name to ‘Emami Glow and Handsome’ on the back of protest against discrimination against the coloured beings especially the black beings. Emami had filed all necessary applications last week itself in regards to the name change. Emami’s spokesperson says that the company is not surprised by HUL’s unfair business practice and will take necessary legal action against them if they keep the same name. This threat will convert into a trademark and copyright infringement suit where Emami shall claim infringement by HUL on the basis that it had filed for the copyright of the name first and thus HUL couldn’t name their product the same.
Infringement of trademark is when one copies other’s trademark and uses it to make the sale or advertises it for profit-making purposes or if it even has a likelihood of confusion and this is a classic case of the same wherein HUL’s product name will create a massive confusion amongst customers and it will use it to make sales and advertisement. If HUL doesn’t change the name of its product the confusion amongst customers will be massive and this could cause a lot of loss in sale for Emami. It seems fair for Emami to pursue a legal course as the name has been copied and securing a court order making HUL change the brand name would be fitting.
These two companies have been at loggerheads for a while now. It was only last month that Emami had secured an order from Court restraining HUL from airing its television commercial on ‘Fair and Lovely’ fairness cream. Emami had claimed that HUL's advertisement had disapproving visuals and references to its 'Fair and Handsome' cream and thus was smearing the product name and reputation.
On a side note, Johnsons & Johnsons stopped selling its skin whitening products in Asia and the Middle East to show its support in the protest of #blacklivesmatter. If the world grows more aware of discrimination and people are well enough then we might never lose lives just because of their race or skin colour.