Wadia quits from Britannia IPR panel

BANGALORE: Bombay Dyeing chairman Nusli Wadia has resigned from the intellectual property right (IPR) committee of the board of Britannia to ensure that there was no potential conflict of interest in dealing with the Tiger IPR issue.

His resignation came on Wednesday. The trademark battle between Danone and Britannia Industries Limited (BIL) intensified on Thursday, with both parties refusing to budge from their positions and deciding to slug it out in a Singapore court.

The Wadia Group on Thursday issued a statement saying that they “had initiated legal action against Groupe Danone in Singapore pertaining to Tiger IPR on legal advice and under direction of the IPR committee.”

When DNA Money spoke to a Danone representative in France, she said the French company was also ready to give a good fight.

“As already explained, we have taken a position regarding the IP of Tiger. We tried to find a solution amicably. We welcome the arbitration (now),” said Danone’s press representative Maire Ginhoux.

The two parties had met early this month to settle issues relating to the exit of Danone from BIL, in which it has a 25.5% stake through Associated Biscuit (which holds a 51% stake in BIL), and the Tiger IPR.

They were, however, unable to sort out their differences and had issued a joint note that said “Nusli (Wadia of Bombay Dyeing) and Franck (Riboud, CEO of Groupe Danone) met, had very friendly discussion. Talks are progressing and (there’s) nothing more to comment at the moment.”

Many are seeing the latest move by the Wadias as an arm-twisting tactic to acquire Danone’s BIL stake at a discount or eke out a big sum as damages, so that they will have to shell very little from their own pocket to buy Danone’s stake.

Both the groups have been warring over the Tiger IPR for over the last one year, after the Wadias found out that Danone had slyly registered Tiger IPR, which has been developed by BIL in many countries, without its permission or knowledge.

According to a company source, Tiger is one of the fastest-moving brands and its sales constitutes 20-30% of BIL’s total revenues. Besides India, the brand is sold in two other countries.

“Last year, BIL wanted to expand into the South East and Far East Asia. When they tried to register Tiger in these markets, it discovered that it was registered by Danone,” said a source.

That’s when the Wadias initiated an action against its French partner.

“The IPR Committee of the Board of Britannia was created in May 2006 to deal with all IPR matters of the company, and for the last year has been working to resolve the issue of the use and registration of Tiger by Groupe Danone in several countries, without the consent or authorisation of the Britannia board,” the statements by the Wadias said.

With the resignation of Wadia, the IPR committee now consists of Britannia managing director Vinita Bali and three independent directors — Nimesh Kampani, Keki Dadiseth and Vijay Kelkar.