BharatPe, PhonePe end 5-year 'Pe' trademark feud

Bengaluru-based PhonePe and New Delhi based fintech startup BharatPe have amicably resolved all their long-standing legal disputes over the use of the ‘Pe’ trademark. These companies had been entangled in legal battles across multiple courts for the past five years. The agreement marks the end of all ongoing judicial proceedings.

Both parties have agreed to withdraw all oppositions in the trademark registry, facilitating the registration of their respective marks, as stated in an official release. Furthermore, both companies will take additional steps to fulfil the terms of the settlement agreement in cases before the Delhi High Court and the Bombay High Court.

The conflict started back in 2018 when PhonePe sent a legal notice to BharatPe, asking them to cease using 'Pe' in the Devanagari script within their brand name. Subsequently, in 2019, PhonePe escalated the issue by filing a plea in the Delhi High Court, seeking an injunction against BharatPe's utilisation of the 'Pe' suffix.

Expressing his satisfaction with the resolution, Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of PhonePe, said, "I am glad that we have reached an amicable resolution in this matter. This outcome will benefit both companies to move forward and focus our collective energy on growing the Indian fintech industry as a whole. I would like to thank Mr. Rajnish Kumar and his team for working with us to get to this positive outcome."

Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the Board at BharatPe, also welcomed the decision, saying, "This is a positive development for the industry. I appreciate the maturity and professionalism shown by the Management of both sides, working closely to resolve all outstanding legal issues and moving ahead to focus their energy and resources in building robust digital payment ecosystems."

Back in 2021, PhonePe also took legal action in the Bombay High Court against BharatPe's parent company, Resilient Innovations, for incorporating the suffix in its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service called ‘PostPe’. However, the court dismissed PhonePe's copyright infringement claim against BharatPe.

During the dispute, Ashneer Grover, a co-founder, was at the forefront at BharatPe. However, he is no longer actively involved in the company's day-to-day operations.

In April, BharatPe unveiled BharatPe One, India’s inaugural all-in-one payment solution merging POS, QR, and speaker functionalities into a single device. This pioneering product is aimed at simplifying transactions for merchants, providing them with flexible payment acceptance choices like dynamic and static QR codes, tap-and-pay, and conventional card payments, supporting a diverse array of debit and credit cards.

PhonePe introduced the Indus Appstore on February 21 with the goal of rivalling the Google Play Store on android devices. This app store provides Indian users with access to more than 200,000 mobile apps and games spanning 45 categories.

In March, PhonePe's Indus Appstore for Android devices achieved over 1 million installations following its recent launch, as announced by the company. According to the company, 45% of the appstore's users hail from tier 2 cities.