Bombay High Court denies interim relief to Republic TV in trademark infringement suit against RTV News

The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to grant relief to Republic TV in its trademark infringement suit against Telugu news channel RTV News over its logo, 'R'. [ARG Outlier Media Private Limited v. Rayudu Vision Media Limited].Justice Manish Pitale dismissed the interim application by Republic TV seeking an urgent stay on the use of the logo by RTV News till the suit is finally heard. "This Court has compared the two device marks as a whole and it cannot be said that Republic has made out a strong prima facie case in its favour to hold that the device mark of RTV is deceptively similar to its registered mark. Since Republic has failed to make out a prima facie case in its favour, no enquiry is warranted on the aspects of the balance of convenience and the grave and irreparable loss that Republic might suffer in the absence of interim reliefs", the court observed dismissing the interim application..ARG Outlier, the parent company of Republic TV, filed the suit in March 2023 seeking permanent injunction against RTV's holding company, Rayadu Vision Media, for infringing and passing off the trademark ‘R,’ owned by Republic TV.The media company sought ₹100 crore damages against Rayudu for its alleged unfair trade practices.The plea said that around February 4, 2023, Republic TV came across YouTube channels with the name RTV. Republic alleged in the suit that RTV copied its trademark and was using a logo that was deceptively similar to its own.In its reply, Rayudu pointed out that it has been using the logo ‘RTV’ since 2007, much before Republic was incorporated in 2016. It also claimed that it was an honest user of the mark as it came from the owner’s family name. Rayudu claimed that an application for use of the logo 'R' for its news channel is pending before the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, and that Republic had also formally opposed the logo, which the Ministry was yet to consider..Senior Advocates Nikhil Sakhardande with Advocates Amit Jamsandhekar, Prathmesh Kamat, Zoeb Cutlarywala, Vikram Kamath and Anand Mohan, briefed by Phoenix Legal, appeared for Republic TV. Senior Advocate Sharan Jagtiani along with Advocates Hiren Kamod, Abhijeet Deshmukh, Aatir Saiyed, Surabhi Agarwal, Prem Khullar and Ashish Kankal, briefed by Khurana & Khurana, appeared for RTV.[Read order]