Of course, the stakes are high. The country's confectionery market, currently estimated at Rs 1,100 crore, is expected to cross Rs 1,900 crore by the turn of the century. By 2005, it could burgeon to a whopping Rs 6,400 crore.

A small but significantly buoyant segment of this market belongs to bubble gums. According to ORG-Marg, bubble gumsales have risen from Rs 11.98 crore in 1993 to Rs 99.26 crore in 1997. Market sources aver that the true size of the bubble gum market could be as high as Rs 250 crore for 1998.

Either way, Perfetti must be hurting. The company claims that Big Babol enjoys a 30 per cent share of total bubble gum pie, and more significantly, the brand accounts for close to 45 per cent of Perfetti's total turnover. Guesstimates a market source: "Ever since the interim ban on Big Babol came into place, daily sales of Rs 30 lakh worth of Big Babol have been affected."

Candico is not without it's bruises either. Early in January 1998 when it first launched Freedom, a Re 1 bubble gum, it felt the heat of an aggressive marketing drive by Perfetti.

But why did the war in the marketplace shift to a battle in the courts? Why did Candico and Perfetti, who came close to smoking the peace-pipe, suddenly start breathing fire? And how did the relations between two sweets manufacturers turn so sour? Consider the chronology of theevents leading to September 1998's bubble-trouble.

Who has the freedom to sell?

The first rumble of trouble came in January 1998, when Candico launched a new bubblegum, Freedom, priced at Re 1 a piece -- which directly took on the Re 1 Big Babol from Perfetti. Candico claims that soon after, on February 5 and March 1, Perfetti launched month-long schemes to promote Big Babol, which together offered the confectionery trade an extraordinary discount of 43 per cent -- against the industry norm of 15 to 20 per cent.

According to Candico, Perfetti also issued a pamphlet which showed the Freedom wrapper crumpled in a "disparaging manner" and titled "Big Babol Bhagaye Trouble". Says AK Khaneja, senior manager, brands and relationships, Candico: "Perhaps the purpose was to preempt our entry into the market."

On March 25, Candico moved the MRTPC in an issue of unfair trade practice. And on March 26, 1998, the commission issued an injunction against Perfetti to not indulge in restrictive and unfair tradepractices. It also issued a notice of enquiry into Perfetti's alleged restrictive or unfair trade practices.

Perfetti, which is still contesting the MRTPC case, claims that schemes like the March 1-31, 1998 scheme -- one jar of 300 Golia pieces free on the purchase of two 150-piece Big Babol jars -- are routine, nationwide tradeload schemes. Two, the company maintains that the line "Big Babol Bhagaye Trouble" was not a disparaging comment on Freedom and instead, was a take-off on a Big Babol commercial which began airing on the national networks on March 6, 1998 for four weeks.

The final resolution to the case is still pending before the commission.

Pertinently, in its reply to MRTPC, it was Perfetti who first raised the question of ownership of the Big Bubble Gum brand. Says Perfetti's reply: "The applicant's product Freedom which was launched in January 1998 contains the words The Big Babol Gum (sic) underneath the word Freedom. The respondent reserves its right to proceed against the applicant forillegal, unauthorised use of the words The Big Babol Gum (sic) by the applicant in its products which has misled the respondent's customers and has caused damage to the respondent."

Whose big bubble gum is it anyway?

On April 16, 1998, Perfetti tossed a gauntlet. Through its Delhi-based law firm J B Dadachanji Ravinder Narain Mathur & Co, Perfetti sent Candico a notice to desist and refrain from using the words "Big Bubble Gum" in any manner, within 15 days.

Candico decided to take up cudgels and fight back. On June 18, 1998, Candico filed a civil suit in the district court at Nagpur -- Candico's manufacturing facility is based in Nagpur -- under the provisions of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958.

Candico claimed that in a recent market survey it noticed that when a group of children approached a retail shop to buy Freedom, the retailer supplied Big Babol to the children instead. According to Candico, Perfetti's continuance "with the brand Big Babol and issue of the threat, is causingirreparable loss of business, its stability, goodwill of the company, besides loss of mental peace..."

Next Candico began building a case for owning the Big Bubble Gum brand. It claimed that its trademark Bakeman's Big Bubble had been in use since March 1989. Also, that the registration of the trademark was applied for under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1958, through application number 626391, on April 26, 1994.

The company also claims to have applied for the registration of the wrapper in which it was packing its gum products for sale, through application number 618983 on February 8, 1994. Candico thus claims "to have acquired the rights to use Big Bubble Gum both as a trademark and as a descriptive expression".

To support its claim of "prior use" Candico has presented sales figures: Big Bubble Gum sales rose from Rs 6 lakh in 1990-91 to Rs 28 lakh 1992-93. Candico claims that the product is still available in the East and North-East markets and that market share is less than a per cent point.Says Sanjiv Kumar: "How does that matter? These are our brands which we can pick up and rechristen or rejuvenate any time we want."

For example, in its suit, Candico claims that it has used "Big Bubble Gum" in its product Loco Polo since December 1995. (The brand's sales rose from Rs 2.76 crore in 1995-96 to Rs 9.79 crore in 1997-98). And of course, in January 1998, came Freedom--"and on it was the descriptor The Big Bubble Gum," says Khaneja. Candico claims Freedom sales have already touched Rs 5.79 crore.

Now, in its suit Candico maintains that it has "sold large quantities of these products under their respective trademarks, namely, The Big Bubble Gum, Freedom (The Big Bubble Gum) and Loco Poco...It may be mentioned that the consumers of the products are largely children and the said products...have been known amongst children as The Big Bubble Gum".

The onus was now on Perfetti, which started commercial activity in India in October 1994, to prove that its claim on Big Babol -- which phonetically,sounds like Big Bubble -- was stronger than Candico's. Perfetti's contention: even though the brand Big Babol was launched in India in December 1994, Perfetti had claim to the trademark as it was a brand pending registration in more than 60 countries -- and had been launched in the Italian market back in 1978.

(To be continued)