Delhi high court restrains site from using HT Media name, logo

“Balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiffs (HT Media Limited) and they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in case the injunction, as prayed for, is not granted,” Justice Jyoti Singh said in an April 19 order.

The Delhi high court has restrained a rogue website from infringing the trademark logo and domain name of Hindustan Times (HT) Media Limited. The court said that the HT Media has made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad-interim injunction in their favour.

The court said that the HT Media has made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad-interim injunction in their favour.

“Balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiffs (HT Media Limited) and they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in case the injunction, as prayed for, is not granted,” Justice Jyoti Singh said in an April 19 order.

“The impugned domain name/website offers services identical to those of the plaintiffs and the impugned mark as used on the webpage is in a manner and style, which is deceptively similar/nearly identical to that of the plaintiffs’ mark and is aimed to deceive and confuse the consumers,” the plea said.

The plaintiffs, which run news publication in several languages, had moved court, seeking injunction against domain name/ website “hindustantimesmarathi.com”, stated to be using a deceptively identical logo to the former’s name.

The plaintiff company operates with the domain names “hindustantimes.com” and “marathi.hindustantimes.com”. The plea stated that HT Media on January 25, 2022 came across the impugned domain name/website www.hindustantimesmarathi.com, which appears to be owned and operated by Dipali Santosh Rao, who is primarily and substantially engaged in publishing, hosting, communicating news, articles, stories, columns, etc. in Hindi and Marathi.

The plea claimed that the practice by the defendants is aimed to deceive and confuse the consumers, adding that they had issued a cease-and-desist letter to the defendants, however, there has been no response to the same.

“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,” the plea read.

Noting the submissions, the court restrained the defendants from directly or indirectly using the name/mark ‘HINDUSTAN TIMES’ and the mark/logo, or any other mark identical/ deceptively similar to the plaintiffs’ trademark.

The judge also restrained the defendants from directly or indirectly using the original artistic work in the logo or any identical or substantial reproduction/colourable imitation, amounting to copyright infringement.