December 18,2017:

HC held that,"Phrase “BOOKMY” is not an arbitrary coupling of two English words. It is instead an apt description of a business that is involved in booking of a particular thing for its consumers, whether it is a concert, a movie, or a sports facility".

Delhi High Court has refused to grant an injunction to the ticket booking website, bookmyshow.com against a company from using mark ‘bookmysports.com’ or using the prefix ‘bookmy’ in their domain name.

Bigtree Entertainment Pvt Ltd which owns bookmyshow.com, had submitted before the High Court Bench that it holds several trademarks for ‘bookmyshow’ word marks and logos, and had filed applications for the numerous other ‘bookmyshow’ and ‘bookmy’ trademarks.

The Company further submitted that its performance in the ticketing industry has given ‘bookmyshow’ trademark a secondary meaning associated with the high standards of service delivery and the professionalism.

The it was stated that prefix ‘Bookmy’ is an essential part of Plaintiff’s registered trademark, as it has acquired a distinctiveness over a period of time, exclusively associated with the company and that defendant’s trademark is deceptively similar to plaintiff’s, thus can mislead the prospective clients, due to substantial goodwill and publicity acquired by the Plaintiff.

Defendant's submitted before the Court that its domain of activity was booking sports facilities and is squarely different from that of Plaintiff’s, except that they are both engaged in facilitating the online bookings.

Defendant's was further stated that prefix ‘bookmy’ is not an invented phrase meriting legal protection, but a descriptive one that is common to particular business being run.

HC's Single Judge Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta expounded that on examination of market, prefix ‘bookmy’ is abundant.

Thus, Delhi High Court expounded that this gives the impression that prefix is not invented, but is rather a description of type of business being run.

High Court Bench, while dismissing application for the permanent injunction pending hearing of the case enunciated that Plaintiff’s trademark ‘bookmyshow’ has not acquired a distinctive meaning in minds of the public.

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