Delhi HC restrains website from infringing on HT Media's registered trademark
The court has granted an ex-parte relief to HT by restraining the use of the words 'Hindustan Times' till the next date of hearing on September 22
The Delhi High Court has restrained a website www.hindustantimes.tech from using the words 'Hindustan Times' following a plea by HT Media, which owns the English daily Hindustan Times. The company had moved the court to restrain the website from using its copyrighted name.
Justice Prathiba M Singh granted an ex-parte relief to HT by restraining the use of the words 'Hindustan Times' till the next date of hearing, September 22. It has also disallowed the owner of www.hindustantimes.tech from publishing any content including articles, stories, columns, reviews, etc. in violation of HT Media’s copyright.
HT Media had contended that the website was 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.
“‘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 single-judge bench also directed the website's host to immediately block the domain www.hindustantimes.tech. It also directed 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.
