Delhi High Court Temporarily Restrains Deepika Padukone's 82°E From Using “Lotus Splash” Mark In Dispute With Lotus Herbals
Riya Rathore
17 Feb 2026 12:44 PM IST
The Delhi High Court has issued a temporary injunction restraining actress Deepika Padukone's DPKA Universal Consumer Ventures Private Limited, the entity behind the skincare brand 82°E, from manufacturing, advertising or selling its "Lotus Splash" facial cleanser until final disposal of the suit.
The Division Bench comprising Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Vinod Kumar held that the use of the mark "Lotus Splash" by the defendants was not merely descriptive of an ingredient but was being used as a trademark.
Lotus Herbals Private Limited, which commenced operations in 1993 and holds registrations for the mark "Lotus" dating back to 1996, challenged the use of 82°E's "Lotus Splash" before the court.
While a Single Judge had refused to grant interim relief and allowed the defendants to continue using the mark, the Division Bench set aside that decision, observing that the mark "Lotus Splash" was being used as a sub-mark under the umbrella brand "82°E".
The Court found that DPKA was using "Lotus Splash" as a mark and not merely as a description of the product's components.
The Court noted that the bottle separately carried the phrase "conditioning cleanser with lotus and bioflavonoids" in addition to the mark "Lotus Splash".
The contention that the term “Lotus Splash” was being used as a descriptor did not pass muster, the Court held, noting that DPKA had purchased the keywords “lotus face wash” so that its product appeared among sponsored results on the Google search results page
“In this regard, we make a reference to a judgment of this Court in the case of Google LLC v. DRS Logistics (P) Ltd. & Ors wherein a Coordinate Bench of this Court had held that the use of a trademark as a keyword to trigger display of an advertisement of goods or services would be use of the mark in advertising. In the context of this case, since the respondents' product appears when the phrase “lotus face wash” is searched, thus this clearly shows the fact that the respondents intend to use the term as a mark and not as a mere descriptor,” the court observed.
The court noted that while the actress's brand had applied for trademark registrations for other products in their line such as "Turmeric Shield" and "Ashwagandha Bounce," they purportedly did not apply for "Lotus Splash," claiming instead it was merely descriptive.
The court stated that, as a registered prior user with an annual turnover exceeding Rs. 694 Crores, Lotus Herbals was entitled to interim relief.
Concluding that Lotus Herbals is a prior user with a long continuous association with the mark, the High Court has temporarily restrained the competitor from manufacturing, advertising, or selling any products under the mark "Lotus Splash" or any deceptively similar derivatives of "Lotus" until the final disposal of the suit.
For Lotus Herbals: Senior Advocate Chander M. Lall with Advocates Vaibhav Vutts, Aamna Hasan, Aarya Deshmukh and Vaibhavi SG and Annanya Mehan
For DPKA Universal and Deepika Padukone: Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan with Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Dhruv Anand, Madhu Chaudhary, Udita Patra, Sanjeevi Seshadri, Nimrat Singh, Dhananjay Khanna and Bhavya Verma