ORDER :

The applicant/plaintiff is seeking interim reliefs in this application in the context of its registered device mark. It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendant, by using its mark in or about January 2023, has infringed upon the registered device mark of the plaintiff, thereby giving rise to the cause of action of filing the suit and the present application. The plaint initially stated a list of device marks and word marks in respect of which the plaintiff had obtained registration, but when the defendant pointed out that in respect of some of the marks, applications for registration were still pending, the plaintiff sought amendment of the plaint. This Court granted permission for amendment, as a consequence of which, the prayers in the present application are being pressed on the basis of amended pleadings.

2. The defendant filed its reply affidavit, as also an additional affidavit and the plaintiff filed its rejoinder affidavit, as a consequence of which, the pleadings were completed and the application was taken up for hearing and disposal.

3. The plaintiff has stated in its plaint that it was incorporated on 02.08.2016 and it owns and operates news channels 'Republic TV', 'Republic Bharat' and 'Republic Bangla'. The plaintiff claims to have earned immense goodwill in a short period of time and that it is one of the leading news channels viewed in India as well as globally. The plaintiff has stated that in addition to having its own TV channels, it also owns Facebook pages, Twitter handles and YouTube channels, details of which are given in paragraph 6 of the plaint. The details of the domain names belonging to the plaintiff are given in paragraph 8 of the plaint. The plaintiff has given details of its registered trademarks, being device marks, in paragraph 10 of the plaint. It is specifically stated that the aforementioned device mark was registered in Class 41, on 15.05.2019, dating back to the date of the application i.e. 10.09.2018, as also in Class 38 on 17.05.2019, dating back to the date of the application i.e. 10.09.2018.

4. The plaintiff has stated that it engaged a Canadian based broadcast design and real-time graphics agency for creating the said device mark, on the basis of an agreement dated 05.01.2017 and that the plaintiff paid service fees in that regard to the tune of USD 300,000. As per the agreement, the plaintiff is the sole and absolute owner of the said device mark. Copies of the services agreement executed between the plaintiff and the said Canadian based agency are placed on record. It is submitted that the banners and hoardings pertaining to launch of news channel Republic TV of the plaintiff were installed in as many as 60 cities around the time when the channel was launched in May, 2017. It is stated that the plaintiff incurred expenses of over Rs.6.01 crores for advertisement and publicity, apart from spending about Rs.57 crores in setting up the Republic TV news channel. The plaintiff has given details of its viewership on various platforms to support its claim of having earned immense goodwill from the time the aforesaid channel was launched in the year 2017. On this basis, the plaintiff claims proprietary rights in the said device mark and also asserts tremendous goodwill earned over the years after May, 2017.

5. It is claimed that on or about 04.02.2023, while accessing the internet, the plaintiff became aware of YouTube channel by the name 'RTV' having its handle as @RTVNewsNetwork with the logo. On further enquiries, the plaintiff came to know that the same was owned and maintained by the defendant herein and upon further enquiries, the plaintiff became aware about the fact that the defendant was maintaining multiple YouTube channels like, RTV Entertainment, RTV Life, RTV Plus, RTV Andhra Pradesh etc. The plaintiff found that the defendant was disseminating news in Telugu lan