Delhi High Court
Indicus Netlabs(P) Ltd vs Raftaar Media Pvt Ltd on 27 February, 2012
Author: A. K. Pathak
$~10
*IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ CS(OS) 154/2010
Decided on: 27th February, 2012
INDICUS NETLABS(P) LTD ..... Plaintiff
Through :Mr. C.M. Lall, Ms. Ekta
Sarin and Mr. Dhruv Singh,
Advs.
Versus
RAFTAAR MEDIA PVT LTD ..... Defendant
Through : Defendant is ex-parte.
Coram:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.K. PATHAK
A.K. PATHAK, J. (ORAL)
1. Plaintiff has filed this suit for permanent and mandatory
injunction, passing off, infringement of trademark, rendition of
accounts and damages against the defendant.
2. A perusal of plaint discloses that the plaintiff was
incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. It has its
registered office at 202, Raj Tower, IG-I, Alaknanda, Community
Centre, New Delhi. The suit has been filed by plaintiff through its
Director-cum-Constituted Attorney Mr. Peeyush Bajpai. Plaintiff is
the largest integrated search engine in Hindi under the domain name
"Raftaar.in/Raftaar.com" in India. Plaintiff had registered the
domain names raftaar.com, raftaar.in, raftaar.info, raftaar.org,
raftaar.org.in, raftaar.net.in, raftaar.co.in, raftaar.firm.in, raftaar.biz,
raftaar.us and raftaar.net sometime in the month of November,
2005. On 26th January, 2006 plaintiff launched its website with the
primary Uniform Resource Locator (for short "url") as Raftaar.com
and Raftaar.in as a secondary url.
3. Plaintiff's website "Raftaar.in" is a single window access to
information which prominently features latest national and local
news, daily horoscopes, search for images, photos, songs,
information on education, astronomy, dictionary, religion, blogs,
sports, Bollywood news, market prices, stock exchange etc. under
the following heads, "Raftaar Khabar" for Hindi news, "Raftaar
foto" for images, "Raftaar gane" for Hindi songs, "Raftaar Khel"
for sports, "Raftaar Bollywood" for latest bollywood gossip,
"Raftaar Shiksha" for education, "Raftaar Blog", "Raftaar
Lifestyle", "Raftaar Bhaav" for stock exchange markets, "Raftaar
Rashiphaal" for astrology, "Raftaar Dharm" for religion, "Raftaar
Ekalam" for a typing and font conversion tool, "Raftaar
Shabdkosh" for dictionary, "Raftaar Trends", "Raftaar Calendar and
"Raftaar Directory".
4. Plaintiff is the registered owner of the trademark
"RAFTAAR" in India, under the "Classes 9, 16, 35, 38, 41 and 42"
in respect of the goods and services including telecommunications,
education, providing of training, entertainment, sporting and
cultural activities. Plaintiff's website "Raftaar.in" gets around
1,50,000 page views every week and has indexed nearly eight
million of the estimated total of 10 million pages in Hindi on the
internet. Further "Raftaar.in" also invites registrations of new sites.
Plaintiff's website "Raftaar.in" has over 2000 subscribers of daily
alerts to whom latest news alerts, daily astrology alerts, local city
news alerts are sent on the daily basis by way of emails.
5. Plaintiff was bestowed with prestigious "Manthan Award"
for India's successful e-Content development in the year 2007.
Various leading newspapers, namely, Navbharat Times, Pioneer,
Dainik Jagran, Hidustan and Swadesh extensively covered the
launch of "Raftaar.in" stating that the plaintiff had launched the
website to encourage the local users to search the information in the
Hindi language. Plaintiff enjoys statutory and common law rights
in respect of the trademark "RAFTAAR". Plaintiff's website
"RAFTAAR" had achieved immense goodwill and repute in the
field of entertainment , news, services etc.
6. Plaintiff has alleged that the defendant has adopted the
plaintiff's registered trademark "RAFTAAR" in respect of
broadcasting and airing news programs on television channels in
relation to activities which were similar to that of plaintiff, in order
to encash on the reputation and goodwill of the plaintiff, who had
been providing the news, entertainment, education etc. on its
website under the mark "RAFTAAR". On making an enquiry,
plaintiff came to know that the defendant had applied for
registration of mark "RAFTAAR" under "Class 41". Defendant has
adopted the mark "RAFTAAR" of the plaintiff for its news channel,
so as to cause confusion and deception in the mind of public at large
as also to ride on the reputation and goodwill of the plaintiff.
7. After service of summons, defendant appeared in Court
through a lawyer. Written statement was not filed on time. Vide
order dated 27th July, 2010, Joint Registrar condoned the delay in
filing of the written statement, subject to, however, cost of `3,000/-
(Rupees Three Thousand Only). However, cost was not paid by the
defendant. Vide order dated 18th October, 2010, defendant was
saddled with further cost of `15,000/- (Rupees Fifteen Thousand
Only). It was made clear that in case cost is not paid, written
statement shall not be taken on record. Cost has not been paid,
meaning thereby that the written statement has not been taken on
record. Subsequently, defendant even stopped appearing and was
proceeded against ex-parte on 14th July, 2011.
8. Plaintiff has led ex-parte evidence. Plaintiff has filed
affidavit of PW1 Sh. Peeyush Bajpai to prove its case. Documents
have also been proved by him as PW1/1 to PW1/14. Memorandum
of Association of plaintiff has been proved as Ex. PW1/2. "Who-is"
search report has been proved as Ex. PW1/3 collectively to show
that the plaintiff is the registered owner of the domain names
"raftaar.com", "raftaar.in", "raftaar.info", "raftaar.org",
"raftaar.org.in", "raftaar.net.in", "raftaar..co.in", "raftaar.firm.in",
"raftaar.biz", "raftaar.us" and "raftaar.net". Printouts of the
screenshots of plaintiff's website has been proved as Ex. PW1/4 to
show that plaintiff has website by the name "Raftaar.in" and is a
Hindi search portal and a single window access to information in
Hindi across the internet. Ex. PW1/5 collectively are the certified
copies of the registration of the mark "RAFTAAR" of the plaintiff
under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 under the "Classes 9, 35, 38, 41
and 42". Ex. PW1/6 is the Chartered Accountant's certificate
showing that the plaintiff has generated more than `16 lacs revenue
in advertisements on its website during the financial year 2010-11.
PW1 has reiterated the averments made in the plaint, which have
been detailed in brief in the preceding paras hereinabove. It has
been further deposed that "Raftaar.in" features latest national and
local news, daily horoscopes, search for images, photos, songs,
information on education, astrology, dictionary, religion, blogs,
sports, Bollywood news, market prices, stock exchange etc.
9. Evidence adduced by the plaintiff has succeeded in proving
that it is engaged in the business of entertainment and information
media through internet under the registered trademark
"RAFTAAR". Defendant is also engaged in the similar business of
airing local news on television channels as well as carrying on
broadcast of news and entertainment through internet and is in the
use of deceptively similar mark as that of the plaintiff. There is
every likelihood of causing confusion and deception in the mind of
public at large that defendant has a link/connection with the
plaintiff, inasmuch as, plaintiff is the owner of registered mark
"RAFTAAR" and use of such mark by any other person for similar
trade would amount to infringement under Section 29 of the Trade
Marks Act, 1999.
10. For the foregoing reasons, suit of the plaintiff is decreed in
terms of prayer A (i) and (ii) along with costs of the proceedings.
As regards to other prayers, the same have been given up during the
course of hearing. Decree-sheet be drawn.
A.K. PATHAK, J.
FEBRUARY 27, 2012
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