CULT trademark under legal cloud as co-founder seeks cancellation ahead of Cult.fit IPO

Mumbai: The Madras High Court has recently issued notice on a petition seeking cancellation of the CULT trademark registered in the name of Cultfit Healthcare Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Cult.fit Ltd, putting the fitness company's flagship brand under legal challenge ahead of its proposed initial public offering.

Justice P.B. Balaji issued notice on October 12, 2026, on the trademark rectification petition. On November 5, the court adjourned the matter to December 2, 2026, to allow the registered owner to file its reply.

Deepak Poduval, who co-founded the original CULT fitness business in Bengaluru in 2015, has sought the court’s intervention for the cancellation of the trademark registration held by Cultfit Healthcare Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Cult.fit Ltd.


The trademark challenge is part of a larger legal fight over who owns the brand. Poduval has also filed a case in the Commercial Court in Bengaluru to cancel the 2017 assignment deeds, which supposedly transferred the trademark, claiming they are forged. The case will be heard next on November 16.

“I helped create CULT and applied for its trademark in 2015 in my name. Today, the brand is at the centre of a company preparing for an IPO, yet the very documents being used to establish its ownership carry signatures I maintain are not mine and have been forged,” said Deepak Poduval, co-founder of the original CULT business in a public statement. “This is about something fundamental: who actually owns the CULT brand? I believe public investors deserve complete transparency about how the company’s most important brand was acquired,” he added.

The dispute comes at a time when the company Cult.fit prepares for its maiden public offering.

In a written response dated 14 October 2026 to Poduval’s complaint to SEBI, Cult.fit acknowledged that its draft IPO prospectus did not correctly describe the ownership of the CULT trademarks. The company confirmed that the trademarks are registered in the name of its subsidiary, Cultfit Healthcare Pvt Ltd, rather than Cult.fit Ltd itself, and undertook to correct the disclosure in its final prospectus.

Poduval first applied for the trademark 'CULT – The Workout Station' in August 2015. Cultfit Healthcare filed its own application in November 2016, saying it had been using the mark since May 1, 2015, the same date mentioned in Poduval's application.