Vistara trademark battle: Delhi High Court directs Tata Airlines, Kannada news network to not take coercive action

The Delhi High Court on Friday directed a Karnataka-based news network called Vistara News and Tata SIA Airlines (owners of Vistara Airlines) to not take any coercive action in a trademark infringement suit filed by the latter [Tata SIA Airlines Limited v. Vistara Media Private Limited]..Justice Amit Bansal ordered that no coercive action be taken until the next date of hearing, December 15, after the Kannada news network opposed the ex-parte injunction passed against it on November 22."Issue notice...Without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties, it is agreed between the counsels that no coercive steps shall be taken by either of the sides till the next date of hearing," the Court ordered..Tata SIA had approached the Court stating that it is the registered proprietor of the trademark ‘Vistara’ and has an exclusive right to use and protect the same from infringement by third parties.Being declared well-known trademark, Vistara is entitled to the highest degree of protection, the Court was told.It was further argued that the defendant (Vistara News) has dishonestly copied the trademark in its entirety and can have no plausible reason for its adoption.The suit stated that it is manifestly clear that the intention is to confuse the customers into believing that the services and packages offered by the defendant originate from the plaintiff..Accordingly, on November 22, Justice Jyoti Singh had passed an interim injunction after noting that a prima facie case was made out by Tata SIA, the balance of convenience lay in the company's favour and that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm in case the injunction is not granted.“Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, Defendant and all others acting for and on its behalf are restrained from using Plaintiff’s registered and well-known trademark VISTARA, in any form or manner whatsoever, including but not limited to its variations in vernacular languages such as Kannada, amounting to infringement and are also restrained from passing off its services or goods as that of the Plaintiff (Tata SIA Airlines),” the Court had ordered..Tata Airlines was represented by Advocates Pravin Anand, Achuthan Sreekumar and Rohil Bansal.Vistara Media was represented by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Advocates Hima Lawrence, Vikram Hegde, Amit Bhandari, Sidharth Seem, Shirish Krishna, Abhinav Hansaraman and Jagrit Vyas..[Read Order]