The Weekly Wrap | Captain Cool hits a Six 🏏

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former captain of the Indian cricket team, has always had a knack for staying in the spotlight, whether it’s through his cricketing prowess or off-field moves. This week, he made headlines again, not for hitting sixes but for a trademark battle.

Dhoni, known as “Captain Cool”, didn’t just let a company snap up the trademark for his iconic nickname, he filed an objection and made sure to apply to get it moved into his name. And guess what? His application has been accepted.

While the registration process will take its time, it’s already a step forward. But here’s a twist that hasn’t been widely reported—one of Dhoni’s associated companies has already successfully trademarked another of his nicknames,
“Mahi’s”, a name that’s become just as popular over the years.

While we’re on the subject of trademarks, another name from South India is giving Google a run for its money. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has put billions of dollars into developing its AI platform “Gemini”, which they’re hoping will be the next big thing in the tech world. The issue? There’s already a “Gemini TV”, owned by the Maran family’s Sun TV.

Naming businesses after zodiac signs is quite common in India, so Google’s “Gemini” wasn’t the first to pop up. Google argues that its Gemini platform is in a completely different field than the TV channel. However, the trademark game in India doesn’t work that way. It’s usually “first come, first served”.

So, if you’re quick enough, your name might just be yours—until someone else snatches it! It looks like Google will need to get creative if it wants to secure its AI trademark in India.

But it gets even more interesting. Google isn’t the only one caught in the trademark chaos. Other AI platforms like DeepSeek, Grok, and ChatGPT have already been claimed by others.

According to reports, a Bengaluru-based company has raised an objection to ChatGPT’s trademark, claiming prior use of the same name for its education programme before ChatGPT became a household name in India.

In a similar twist, “Grok” is already registered in India by another foreign company, Numneta Inc. Things get even curiouser with “DeepSeek”. The term, and its variations, is now being sought by three different entities. Kuldeep Bhikhabhai Butani has applied for “DEEP SEEK”, while Sonal Patel is after “DEEPSEEK”. And Hangzhou Deepseek Artificial Intelligence is also in the running. All three applications are still pending, adding to the intrigue of this trademark tussle.

While artificial intelligence is causing a ruckus worldwide about stealing jobs, in India, it still has to figure out how to get a foot in the game of names. It seems like before it starts replacing workers, it needs to learn how to compete for trademarks!

Coming back to Dhoni, what about “Thala”? This is the sobriquet he earned during his time with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. “Thala” means ‘leader’ in Tamil, and while it’s already trademarked in other categories, it hasn’t been claimed under sports or anything related to cricket yet. Will Dhoni file to get that under his name as well? Knowing Dhoni, it’s likely. We’ll have to wait and see if he takes a swing at “Thala”, too.

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Foot in the Mouth

Whether these applications were intentional or pure coincidence is still up in the air. However, what seems to be more by design—and very much about design—are two incidents involving foreign companies. One has been accused of ripping off Indian designs while the other claims their designs were copied in India.

First up is Prada. The Italian luxury brand showcased a pair of humble footwear at a fashion show. Nothing too surprising, except that these looked eerily similar to India’s Kolhapuri chappals. After an uproar, Prada admitted that the design indeed had an Indian link, or “inspired by traditional Indian handcrafted footwear” as the company put it.

If it weren’t for the outrage, those chappals, which cost only a few bucks, would’ve been sold for hundreds of dollars in the global market. Kolhapuri chappals have the umbrella of GI tags (Geographical Indication), but experts say Prada could’ve gotten away with it unless they used the word “Kolhapuri”.

A GI tag signifies that a product comes from a specific region and has characteristics or a reputation directly linked to that location. This could be agricultural products like Darjeeling tea, foodstuff like Bikaneri Bhujia, handicraft like Kanchipuram silk sarees, or industrial products like Madurai Sungudi. So, Buta bhujia that looks or tastes like Bikaneri Bhujia can still be sold as long as it is not being made or sold in the garb of Bikaneri Bhujia.

As Prada tried to pass off the chappals as Kolhapuri, it would have been difficult to sue. In the end though, the real winners seem to be the artisans, as many e-commerce websites have reported a jump in Kolhapuri chappal sales since the controversy.

The second matter is also about footwear, by co-incidence surely, not design. US footwear giant Crocs has been fuming over the alleged copying of its iconic clog-style footwear in India.

After nearly a decade of fighting, the US company is finally getting some traction, with the Delhi High Court agreeing to hear its case, which was initially dismissed in 2019. Crocs has accused six companies including Bata, Liberty and Relaxo of copying and selling its famous design. In its defence, Liberty has reportedly claimed that the Crocs did not invent the design but merely adopted it. Hence, there is no case of copying, Liberty says. Let’s see how this dispute ends!

“Unlawful Gains”

Moving on to market news, for the past several months the Securities and Exchange Board of India has been tightening the screws on futures and options trading that it says disproportionately hurt retail investors and benefitted large brokers and institutional traders that use algos. This week, it took another big step to level the playing field.

The capital markets regulator on Thursday barred US trading company Jane Street from accessing the securities market. The decision followed a probe into its alleged market manipulation via positions taken in equities derivatives.

In an interim order, SEBI said Jane Street and its related entities won’t be able to participate in the stock market and can’t buy or sell securities, directly or indirectly. Further, SEBI will monitor Jane Street’s activity on existing positions until it completes its investigation.

SEBI also said it will impound Rs 4,840 crore from Jane Street. This, SEBI said, were “unlawful gains” earned from the alleged misconduct.

On its part, Jane Street disputed the findings of the SEBI order and said it operates in compliance with all regulations in the regions it operates around the world.

Booser Dose

Switching to corporate developments, Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals made its biggest bet this week as it struck a deal to acquire smaller peer JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals New York-based buyout firm KKR.

Torrent will acquire a 46.39% stake in JB Chemicals from KKR for Rs 11,917 crore. It has also launched a mandatory open offer to buy up to 26% more of JB Pharma from public shareholders. Overall, the transaction values JB Chemicals around Rs 25,689 crore, or $3 billion. Eventually, Torrent wants to merge JB Chemicals with itself. Under the merger terms, Torrent will issue 51 of its shares to JB Pharma shareholders for every 100 shares held.

This isn’t the first time Torrent Pharma has bought a company to expand its business. The list of its acquisitions goes back at least two decades. In 2005, it bought Heumann Pharma from Pfizer to enter the German market. It acquired Elder Pharma’s Indian branded business in 2014, the dermaceutical business of Zyg Pharma in 2015, and a manufacturing plant from Glochem Industries in 2016. The following year, it bought women healthcare brands from Novartis and Unichem’s Indian branded business. This was followed by the acquisition of Curatio in 2022.

So, how does this acquisition benefit Torrent? Well, for one, it will strengthen its presence in the Indian pharma market and build a larger diversified global presence.

Unlike many drugmakers, which derive most of their sales from international markets, Torrent’s biggest market by revenue is India. Torrent offers drugs used to treat cancer, infections and diabetes. On the other hand, JB Chemicals is strong in segments such as gastrointestinal medicines and chronic conditions such as hypertension.

Market Wrap

India’s stock markets reversed course this week with the benchmark indices oscillating between gains and losses amid
uncertainty over the potential India-US trade deal ahead of the July 9 deadline.

The Sensex and the Nifty fell 0.7% each this week, after clocking a 2% rise last week. The mid-cap index eked out a 0.5% gain while the small-caps inched 0.3% higher. Among sectoral indices, seven of the 13 dropped this week. Market breadth was negative with 29 of the 50 Nifty stocks and 19 of the 30 Sensex companies ending in the red this week. Among Nifty stocks, Tata-owned retailer Trent was the top loser, plunging nearly 9%, after forecasting growth that fell short of investor expectations.

Financial stocks, which had risen last week, slipped this week with Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Shriram Finance as well as the Bajaj twins—Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance—ending in the red.

IT stocks were mixed; Tech Mahindra and TCS fell but Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech gained. FMCG stocks were largely down—Nestle, Tata Consumer and ITC slipped. But Hindustan Unilever managed to stay in the green.

Apollo Hospitals was the top Nifty gainer after saying it planned to list its digital health and pharmacy unit in the next 18 to 21 months.

Other Headlines

• Cabinet approves employment-linked incentive scheme with Rs 1 trillion budget to create 35 million jobs
• State Bank of India flags Reliance Communications loan account for suspected fraud
• Competition Commission of India orders probe of Asian Paints after rival Birla’s complaint
• E-commerce startup Meesho confidentially files DRHP for IPO, plans to raise Rs 4,250 crore in fresh capital
• Airport restaurants operator Travel Food Services sets Rs 1,045-1,100 price band for IPO, to raise Rs 2,000 crore
• Auto-parts maker Tenneco Clean Air India files for an IPO worth up to Rs 3,000 crore
• Auto-parts maker Hero Motors files DRHP for IPO of up to Rs 1,200 crore
• HDB Financial Services gains 13.6% on stock exchange debut
• Reliance Industries to spin off consumer goods business into new unit
• Maruti Suzuki domestic sales fall 13.3% in June; Hyundai sales slip 12.1%
• Tata Motors domestic sales drop 14.8% but Mahindra & Mahindra local sales surge 18.2%
• HSBC India Services Purchasing Managers' Index climbs to 10-month high of 60.4 in June
• HSBC India Manufacturing PMI climbs to 14-month high of 58.4 in June from May’s 57.6
• Industrial output growth slows to nine-month low of 1.2% in May, shows govt data
• Banks’ gross NPAs to remain close to multi-decade lows, says RBI report
• Apollo Hospitals plans to list digital health and pharmacy arm in 18-21 months
• Fire at Sigachi Industries chemical factory in Telangana kills 40 people, injures over 33
• NSE to start electricity futures trading from July 14
• Lupin to spin off consumer healthcare business

That’s all for this week. Until next week, happy investing.

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