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By: Express News Service | New Delhi |
Updated: October 24, 2020 2:58:58 am
The court passed the order in a suit filed by the Bennett Coleman & Co. Limited against ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, seeking a decree of permanent injunction against Republic TV from using the trademark and the tagline.
THE DELHI High Court on Friday restrained Republic TV from using the trademark ‘NEWS HOUR’, or any other mark deceptively similar to it, but declined to pass any interim order to stop the use of the tagline ‘Nation Wants to Know’ by the channel.
The court passed the order in a suit filed by the Bennett Coleman & Co. Limited against ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, seeking a decree of permanent injunction against Republic TV from using the trademark and the tagline.
In the suit, the Times Network had argued that ‘THE NEWSHOUR’ is its registered trademark and ‘Nation Wants to Know’ was coined by its editorial and marketing teams as key words to be used during the Newshour programme.
According to the suit, the Republic TV management had filed trademark applications for ‘Nation Wants to Know’, ‘Arnab Goswami Newshour’ and ‘Goswami Newshour Sunday’, and alleged that Goswami was trying to take undue advantage of his past services with Times Network and the popularity of the programme under the trademark and tagline.
Goswami, in reply, had questioned registration of the trademark granted to Times Now for ‘The Newshour’, contending that it lacks distinctiveness, and that the tagline ‘Nation Wants to Know’ has been used by him frequently and consistently.
The court, in its order, said marks like ‘Arnab Goswami’s Newshour’, ‘Arnab Goswami’s Newshour 9’ prima facie would be deceptively similar to the trademark NEWS HOUR of Times Now. The court also said that whether ‘The Nation Wants to Know’ was used as trademark or merely as a form of speech by Times Now is an aspect that has to be appropriately gone into after evidence is completed between the parties.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd