The Madras Highcourt located in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has fined Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved 10 lakh Indian Rupees (approx. $13,343.00) for claiming its recent immunity booster CORONIL as a cure for COVID-19 and ‘chasing profits’ by exploiting the fear of pandemic among the country’s citizens.
The court declined to hold or remove the interim stay which limits Patanjali from using the term CORONIL to market its tablets against COVID-19.
An injunction to the same was awarded by the Madras High Court on a trademark infringement suit filed by Chennai-based Arudra Engineers Private Limited, which was using the registered trademarks Coronil-213SPL and Coronil-92B for its industrial cleaning chemicals for nearly three decades.
The court said: “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 actually their ‘Coronil Tablet’ is not a cure but rather an immunity booster for cough, cold and fever.”
The court ordered Patanjali and Divya Yog Mandir Trust which makes the tablets to pay Rs 5 lakh each to the Adyar Cancer Institute and to Government Yoga and Naturopathy Medical College and Hospital where treatment is accorded free of cost without any claim to either trademark, trade name, patent or design, but only with service as a motto.
“Costs to be paid on or before August 21 and a memo in this regard, to be filed before the Registry, High Court Madras, on or before August 25” the court directed.
