Payments company Paytm has joined a growing list of Indian companies accused by foreign players of trademark infringement.

California-based PayPal has filed a case against Paytm in the Indian trademark office for using a logo similar to its own. PayPal has registered five different logos with the Indian trademark registrar. It has the right to use any one of them.

The company has been using the logo that it claims is similar to the Paytm one since 2007.

Several Indian companies, including ITC and McDowell, have in the past been accused of copying trademarks by rivals like Cadbury and Glenfiddich.

In a letter to the Registrar of Trademarks, PayPal said the use of Paytm’s logo is likely to cause confusion among the public as it has a similar two-tone blue colour scheme.

“There is no reason for the applicant (Paytm) to adopt the identical colours and colour scheme other than to take advantage of the reputation the opponent (PayPal) has built up into this combination in connection with its popular services,” the complaint said.

Paytm did not respond to queries sent by BusinessLine .

This issue comes at a time when Paytm, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has been aggressively advertising and promoting its services.

Paytm, which has got an RBI licence to operate a payments bank, has been the biggest gainer of demonetisation with its user-base expanding by 14 million in the past one month. It has about 100 million active users on its wallet.

PayPal, on the other hand, has not yet launched its full suite of services in India.

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