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Delhi HC restrains rogue website from using HT Media Limited’s domain name
HT Media Limited, in its plea, had alleged that the rogue website was also engaged in reproducing, publishing, and making available news, articles, stories and columns created and published by the plaintiffs (HT Media Limited) on their website www.hindustantimes.com.
The Delhi high court has restrained a rogue website from using a deceptively similar domain as that of Hindustan Times (HT), saying that the former intends to encash on the goodwill of HT Media Limited.
On May 24, justice Prathiba M Singh restrained the use of www.hindustantimes.tech, comprising the words “Hindustan Times” till the next date of hearing, September 22, after HT Media moved court seeking directions to stop the website from using their copyrighted name.
Granting ex-parte relief to HT, the court also restrained the owners of the website www.hindustantimes.tech from publishing any content including articles, stories, columns, reviews, etc. in violation of HT Media’s copyright.
HT Media Limited, in its plea, had contended that the rogue website offered services identical to those offered by HT Media.
It alleged that the said website was also engaged in reproducing, publishing, and making available news, articles, stories and columns created and published by the plaintiffs (HT Media Limited) on their website www.hindustantimes.com.
Saying that the plaintiffs (HT Media Limited) made out a “prima facie” case for the grant of an ex-parte ad interim injunction in their favour, the court said that irreparable loss and injury would be caused to the plaintiffs if the injunction was not granted in their favour.
“‘Hindustan Times’ is the registered trademark of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs command a global viewership and the reputation of one of India’s oldest newspapers. The manner in which the mark/name ‘Hindustan Times’ has been completely misappropriated leaves no manner of doubt in the mind of the court that defendant number one intends to misuse the said mark as also the content which is published by the plaintiffs (HT Media Limited) on their website,” the judge said in the order dated May 24.
The court also noted that the manner in which the details of the registrant of the website www.hindustantimes.tech were masked showed that the defendant had taken “enormous pain to not reveal its identity”.
The single-judge bench also directed the host of the impugned website to immediately block the said domain name as also block access to the website www.hindustantimes.tech while also directing the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to issue directions to all the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block the website.
The court granted 30 days to the defendants to reply to the summons.
