Delhi Court Disposes Bennett Coleman's Trademark Infringement Suit After Settlement With Nominal Damages Of Re. 1

A Delhi Court has disposed of a suit filed by Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. against entities involved in providing gifts and other accessories on their web portals alleging trademark infringement and use of its mastheads in view of a settlement with the defendants with nominal damages of Re. 1.

The suit was filed against 12 entities and the settlement was arrived at with 8 defendant entities namely Giftcart Commerce Pvt. Ltd., Infureka Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Ferns N Petals Pvt. Ltd., G A Media Pvt. Ltd., Mystical Moments Wedding Services Pvt. Ltd., Awwsme Gifts Pvt. Ltd., FA Gifts Pvt. Ltd and Mohan Impressions Pvt. Ltd., Huppme Ecom Network Pvt. Ltd. And RV Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

District Judge Man Mohan Sharma of the Tis Hazari Court disposed of the suit in terms of the settlement agreement arrived between the parties and ordered thus:

"…the settlement between the plaintiff and defendant nos. 1, 2, 7 and 11 respectively is accepted. A consent decree is accordingly passed vis-a-vis the plaintiff and defendant nos. 1, 2, 7 and 11 and the respective settlement agreements, which for the purpose of identification are Ex. X-5, X-6, X-7 and X-8 are respectively and made an integral part of this order and the decree. The suit stands disposed of vis-a-vis the plaintiff and the defendant nos. 1, 2, 7 and 11 as settled in above terms."

"The terms of the respective applications and Settlement Agreement appear to be within the four corner of law. Therefore, the settlement between the plaintiff and defendant nos. 3, 4, 8 and 12 respectively is accepted. A consent decree is accordingly passed vis-a-vis the plaintiff and defendant nos. 3, 4, 8 and 12 and the respective settlement agreements, which are Ex. X-1, X-2, X-3 and X-4 are respectively made an integral part of the decree."

During the course of hearing, the counsel appearing for the plaintiff also submitted that the name of the defendant no. 10 namely Mohan Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. be deleted from the array of the parties.

Accordingly, the Court ordered thus:

"Let the statement of the ld. Counsel for the plaintiff be recorded to this effect. In the view of the statement of the Id. Counsel for the plaintiff, defendant no. 10 is deleted from the array of the parties."

The suit filed through Advocate Rahul Malhotra alleged that the trademark and mastheads of Bennett Coleman Company were being used by the Defendants on their customized and personalised gifts, décor, accessories, etc. which were identical or similar to deceive the public at large to the effect that they were related to the plaintiff company.

The suit therefore sought decree of permanent injunction restraining the defendants from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, advertising, directly or indirectly using and infringing the trademarks namely "Times of India", "Economic Times", etc. belonging to the plaintiff company and other deceptively identical or similar trademark on the goods and services being provided by them to their customers on the web portals or otherwise.

The matter is now listed on December 18 for appearance of other served defendants in the matter.

The Plaintiff was represented by Ld. Counsel Mr. Rahul Malhotra, The Defendant No. 1, 2 & 10 was represented by Ld. Counsel Ms. Anushkaa Arora, Principal & Founder, ABA Law Office, The Defendant No. 7 was represented by Mr. Rahul Shukla.

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