JUDGMENT :

Prathiba M. Singh, J.

1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The present suit has been filed by the Plaintiff - Cable News Network, Inc. which is a company based in USA, involved in the broadcasting/production of an English news channel under the name/mark/ CNN’. The case of the Plaintiff is that the said news channel ‘CNN’ was launched in September, 1985. Since the year 1989, the news channel ‘CNN’ has been available for viewers in India as well. The first New Delhi Bureau of ‘CNN’ was opened in the year 1992 and in June, 1993, a strategic relationship was entered into between ‘CNN’ International and New Delhi Television Pvt. Ltd. (NDTV). As per the plaint, the Plaintiff’s television channel ‘CNN’ was the first private television channel which was allowed to be broadcasted on an Indian Satellite. Further, the mark ‘CNN’ has been protected by the Plaintiff by filing various proceedings. One such proceeding is CS (COMM) 924/2016 titled Cable News Network, Inc. v. Anshu Jain (Anim Desire Private Limited).

3. The Plaintiffs have several trademark registrations in India for the mark ‘CNN’, since the year 1999, in several Classes, namely, 9, 16, 35, 38, 41, 42, and 43. Various other variants and formative marks of the mark ‘CNN’ have also been registered by the Plaintiff, such as ‘CNN IBN’, ‘CNN IBN 7’, ‘CNN NEWS 18’, ‘CNN CAFÉ’, ‘CNN GO’, etc. The earliest mark dates back to 1999. A complete list of registrations has been set out in Paragraph 16 of the Plaint.

4. It is the case of the Plaintiff that, sometime in March, 2021, the Plaintiff came to know that the Defendant No.1 - Mr. Fayyaz Shaikh started running a news channel running under the name ‘CNN News Khabar Update Marathi’. Defendant No.2 – Mr. Azhar Hussain, was shown as the Editor in Chief of the said channel. They were also using the network named ‘CNN City News Network, Darwha, Yavatmal, Maharashtra-445202. The Plaintiff came across the use of the mark ‘CNN’ in the following manner, by the Defendants:

5. The Defendants were also running YouTube Channels and were promoting the mark ‘CNN’ on their Twitter account, Instagram posts, blogs, etc. The depiction of the mark ‘CNN’ on the YouTube Channels of the Defendants is set out below:

6. Accordingly, in view of the identical use of the mark ‘CNN’ by the Defendants for an identical service i.e., news service on the internet, the present suit was filed by the Plaintiff. As per the Plaintiff, the use of the mark ‘CNN’ constitutes infringement of its registered trademarks, passing off, etc. It is also alleged that the said use would constitute misrepresentation, impersonation, dilution and tarnishment.

7. The present suit was listed for the first time before the Court on 24th March, 2021, on which date, an ex parte ad interim injunction was granted, in the following terms:

“Accordingly, till the next date of hearing the defendants, its directors, partners, employees, officers, servants, agents, subsidiaries, distributors, and all others acting for and on their behalf are restrained from using as a trading name or rendering any services, communicating or making available or publishing or printing or disseminating or distributing, or duplicating, or sharing or displaying, or releasing, or showing, or uploading, or downloading, or exhibiting, or playing, and/or defraying any content, news, information under the mark CNN, CNN NEWS or any other mark, name, logo, monogram or label including the impugned trademarksin any medium especially Cable TV, DTH, Internet services, MMS, Tapes, Conditional Access System or in any other like manner including social media websites and mobile applications on any communication devices. It is further directed that the defendants shall remove all the videos and/or content/ information published and/or uploaded on the Internet on any link including the following links;

a. http://t