Delhi HC orders status quo in Trademark Dispute over Radio Nasha [Read Order]

A Delhi High Court Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar has ordered status quo following an appeal filed by HT Media owned Fever FM against the single judge verdict. The single judge had injuncted Fever FM from using the word “Nasha” in relation to their radio service “Radio Nasha”..Senior Advocate AM Singhvi appeared on behalf of HT Media, assisted by Advocates Raj Shekhar Rao, Meghna Mishra, Ankit Rajgarhia, Naman Joshi, Riya, Sidharth Chopra and Julien George. On behalf of the respondent, ENIL, Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, assisted by Advocate Sudeep Chatterjee..Last month, Justice RS Endlaw had ruled in favour of the Entertainment Network [India] Limited (ENIL) owned Radio Mirchi in the trademark dispute over the mark “Nasha”..ENIL had submitted before the Court that it had been providing an online music streaming service styled as “Pehla Nasha” since 2014. Therefore, HT Media’s subsequent launch of “Radio Nasha” in March 2016 amounted to trademark infringement..Justice Endlaw found merit in ENIL’s case that HT Media’s subsequent use of the mark “Nasha” was not bona fide and likely to divert unwary customers to its rival. In result, he restrained HT Media from using the mark “Nasha”. The injunction was supposed to come into effect within 30 days of the order i.e. by August 3..In their appeal against this verdict, HT Media has re-asserted that there is no trademark infringement involved. Inter alia, it was pointed out that despite the objections made by ENIL, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting allowed the assignment of the name “Radio Nasha” for their service. Subsequently, “Radio Nasha” has also been registered as their trademark under class 41..Following the initial submissions, the Division Bench ordered that status quo be maintained until it takes the matter up on October 11..Read the order: