Relief For HT Media: Delhi High Court Grants Ex-Parte Interim Injunction Against Infringing Website Hindustan Times Marathi

Justice Jyoti Singh observed:

"Having heard the learned counsel for the Plaintiffs, this Court is of the view that Plaintiffs have made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad-interim injunction. Balance of convenience lies in favour of the Plaintiffs and they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in case the injunction, as prayed for, is not granted."

The Plaintiff company operates with the domain names "hindustantimes.com" and "marathi.hindustantimes.com".

It has moved the High Court seeking injunction against domain name/ website "hindustantimesmarathi.com" primarily engaged in publishing, hosting, communicating, etc. news, articles, stories, columns, etc. in Hindi and Marathi to Indian readers and viewers, said to be using a deceptively identical logo to the plaintiff's name.

Plaintiff claimed that the practice is aimed to deceive and confuse the consumers. It was said that they had had issued a cease-and-desist letter to Defendants No. 1 and 2, however, Defendants have not responded to the same and are instead continuing to infringe the Plaintiffs' statutory and common law rights.

The plaintiff stated that the trademark 'HINDUSTAN TIMES' is an arbitrary, unique combination/collocation of words in English and Hindi language, thereby making the aforesaid trademark a highly distinctive one.

The name/ trademark 'HINDUSTAN TIMES' signifies and connotes a publication belonging to the 'Hindustan Times' group and none else. Plaintiff No. 1 is also the registered proprietor of the trademark(s) 'HINDUSTAN TIMES', 'HT' and various other formative marks, in various classes for various goods and services, being used continuously and uninterruptedly used since 1924.

It was argued that due to extensive use of the marks inter alia 'HINDUSTAN TIMES' and the logo, for nearly a century, by the Plaintiffs and their group companies/subsidiaries, the same are exclusively associated with the news publications belonging to the 'Hindustan Times' Group.

It was contended by the plaintiff that that use of the mark 'HINDUSTAN TIMES' and a deceptively similar/virtually identical mark/logo by the Defendant, without any authorization/license/ consent from the Plaintiffs amounts to infringement as well as passing off and unfair competition. Being purportedly in the news aggregation business, Defendants No.1 and 2 cannot claim ignorance of the Plaintiffs' marks which are well-known with immense reputation and goodwill.

After hearing the petitioner at length, the court found it a fit case to pass ex-parte injunction.