BharatPe and PhonePe fight over “Pe” suffix

BharatPe, brand name of Resilient Innovations, was founded in 2018 when it launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code for zero MDR payment acceptance service. It also operates the card acceptance terminal BharatPe Swipe, and has 1.3 crore registered merchants across over 450 cities while PhonePe Group’s digital payments app PhonePe was launched in August 2016. The platform has 53.5 crore registered users and a digital payments acceptance network of 3.9 crore merchants.BharatPe Group and PhonePe Group have “amicably settled” all long-standing legal disputes pertaining to the use of the trademark with the suffix ‘Pe’. The fintechs have been involved in a long-drawn legal dispute across multiple courts for the past five years. The settlement will put an end to all open judicial proceedings, what is competitive advantage does the suffix has in the market ?