Small firm that beat bigger company in trademark row, sues them for cheating

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Over a year after fighting in court with an export business bigwig over a tobacco brand name, a relatively smaller company has given the bigger one a taste of its own supari, by booking four of the company's directors in a forgery and cheating case, which also led to the police raiding the major firm's offices on Wednesday. The tussle between the companies began in 2016. Saba Global Impex, the smaller company, started exporting flavoured tobacco under the trademark 'Fawaz' in 2015 from Andhra Pradesh.

Awaz and Fawaz
In October 2016, the biggie group Supariwala Exports, filed a commercial lawsuit in the Bombay High Court alleging Saba's product had a similar name to their popular tobacco variant 'Awaz'. The HC gave an interim order for seizing the Fawaz tobacco. Product worth R25 lakh to R30 lakh was seized as per the order from Andhra Pradesh in November 2016. But Saba Global didn't lose heart. An officer from Azad Maidan police station said, "The owners asked to verify invoices provided by Supariwala Exports to prove their brand was being sold before Saba's."

Upon receiving the invoices, Saba Global discovered Supariwala has claimed to have exported their product to Dubai-based company Al Shamail General Trading. They contacted its owners and asked if they'd ever received any of Supariwala's products under the name 'Awaz'.

No trademark
"They said they had received tobacco from Supariwala, but not under any trademark," said another cop. Saba Global later contacted Asif Khatri, partner in Al Shamail, who later submitted an affidavit through the Indian Embassy stating their company never received any tobacco product under the name Awaz.

Saba Global then produced all documents in HC, which resulted in Supariwala withdrawing their suit. Sheikh Mehboob Ahmed Ali, 35, Saba Global's owner, then decided to file a criminal case against Supariwala and an FIR was registered in Azad Maidan police station on March 20.

Cops have booked group directors Arif Fazlani, Asif Fazlani, Faisal Fazlani and Poonam Mankame, who has the power of attorney. They also raided Supariwala's office in Nariman Point on Wednesday and seized documents and hard disk. "We have seized some important documents. The matter is still under investigation," said another cop. When mid-day reached out to Ijarat Ali Khan, member of Supariwala's legal team, he said, "The matter is sub-judice."

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