Family Feud Over T-Series Logo Hots Up

The estranged uncle-nephew duo of Gopal Kishan and Bhushan Kumar now are taking recourse to legal counsel as the battle for T-Series logo hots up. Stung by a notice sent to him and his wife by Bhushan saying that the T-Series logo cannot be used by them as the product quality is falling, Gopal Kishan is contemplating filing a defamation suit against his nephew.

What does Bhushan mean by saying that the quality of soap cakes and detergents, dhoop and agarbattis manufactured by us are of inferior quality and hence we cannot use the T-series logo on the products ?

 

We are seeking legal counsel to file a defamation suit against him, Rajani Dua, wife Gopal Kishan and proprietor of Rajni Industries, which manufactures and markets `dhoops and `agarbattis told Business Standard.

Her husbands Gopal Soap Industries manufactures and markets soap cakes and detergents. Both use the T-series brand name.

Last week Bhushan Kumar, in his capacity as the managing director of Super Cassettes Industries (SCI), the flagship company of T-series group of companies, issued a legal notice to Gopal Kishan and Rajani Dua refraining them to use the T-series brand on their products.

We had licenced you the artistic work and trade mark T-series...it has come to our notice recently that the quality of both the washing powder as well as detergent cakes have deteriorated... (and) as such the production and sales of your products have declined considerably in recent times, the identical notice to both Gopal Kishan and Rajani Dua states.

The notice further states that since declining quality and sales is resulting in loss of reputation of the T-series trade mark, we have decided to withdraw from you our licence for use of our trade mark and artistic work T-series. The deadline given is 30 days.

It is also learnt that Gopal Soap and Rajni Industries plan to first get their products tested for quality tests and then propose to take legal action against SCI and Bhushan Kumar.

Bhushan Kumar, the 21-year-old son of the late audio cassette czar Gulshan Kumar, said on Sunday he will withdraw the compromise package deal being offered to uncle Gopal Kishan in lieu of Tony Electronics and Jagdamba, in which the latter is claiming ownership as he turned around the companies.

As part of the compromise formula, Gopal Kishan was offered an old factory site in Okhla, Delhi, another site in 15th sector Noida and a bungalow in the posh Greater Kailash area of the capital. The stick: give back control over Tony Electronics and Jagdamba and look after the businesses you have.

In a deal hammered out last year, Gopal Kishan was given responsibility of looking after Tony Electronics and Jagdamba in a bid to oust him from the family empire.

However, in this family feud there is a technical catch.

The deal which took place in December last has not been formalised fully though the stamp papers have been signed.