Living Media India Limited (‘Living Media’) is engaged in the business of news publication and printing of various magazines including India Today and Business Today. Living Media in association with India Today and Business Today run popular television news channels including ‘AAJ TAK’. The mark Aajtak is used as prefix or suffix in the news programs hosted on it – for example ‘Agenda Aaj Tak’, ‘Sahitya Aaj Tak’, ‘Budget Aaj Tak’, ‘Panchayat Aaj Tak’. Living Media has also established a digital-first ecosystem with the suffix ‘TAK’ by using marks such as ‘Bharat Tak’, Astro Tak’, ‘Fit Tak’, ‘Mobile Tak’, ‘Kids Tak’, ‘Life Tak’, ‘Mumbai Tak’, ‘News Tak’, ‘Sports Tak’, ‘Food Tak’, ‘Duniya Tak’, ‘Crime Tak’ etc.
Cause of action arose when Living Media came across a deceptively similar mark “AAJ TAK GURGAON” owned by Satbir Bhardwaj (Bhardwaj) in December 2021, upon a YouTube channel which had videos disseminating news. Living media through its representatives further learnt of social media profiles of the impugned mark on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
Consequently, Living Media issued a Cease & Desist notice to Satbir Bhardwaj stating to refrain from infringing activities and unauthorised use of the impugned marks however, Bhardwaj refused to comply with the requisitions.
Living Media approached the Delhi High Court enforcing to its rights in the trademark AAJ TAK and other AAJ TAK-formative marks.
Living Media averred that its AAJ TAK news channel is widely viewed with an average viewership in grossing in millions. It relied upon its extensive use of the AAJ TAK marks over the years, promotional expenses and the revenue figures to establish the popularity of its marks. Living Media also cited the registrations for its marks, the earliest one dating back to 1995, in support of its case.
Living Media further contended that the URL: www.aajtakgurgaon.com, a digital platform for displaying news update, was not only limited to Gurgaon but to the whole India and that Bhardwaj was also engaged in publishing of newspaper under the impugned marks “
” and “
”.
(Source: Judgement)
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In light of the above, held that Living Media had made out a prima facie case for grant of an ex parte ad-interim injunction and passed an order restraining the defendants from using the infringing mark or any other mark identical or deceptively similar to Living Media’s marks. Having observed that Living Media was likely to suffer irreparable harm in case the injunction is not granted, the Court also directed the concerned Domain Name Registrar to suspend the domain name registration of the Bharadwaj’s domain name, aajtakgurgaon.com. The Court also directed the social media platforms to take down/delete Bhardwaj’s channel/ profile/ pages which used the impugned AAJ TAK marks and/or any other trade mark identical or deceptively similar to the Living Media’s “AAJ TAK” marks.
