28 Jan The appellants had succeeded in establishing that the respondents were guilty of infringement of the appellants’ copyright

HT Media Limited V/S www.theworldnews.net

The present suit is filed by the appellants HT Media Limited, in the Honourable High Court of Delhi before Honourable Justice Prateek Jalan alleging infringement of copyright, trademark and passing off against the respondents. [CS (Comm.) 321/2019, Decided On: 17.02.2020]

The appellants in the present suit are a part of the Hindustan Times group of companies which has various media related businesses, including publication of newspapers. Their newspapers are available in print, as well as online. The English daily, Hindustan Times, was founded in 1924 and, according to the appellants, has a daily readership of over 8 million readers today.

The appellants are the registered proprietors of various trademarks, including “Hindustan Times”, for various classes of goods and services which include newspapers, magazines, etc. Further the appellants also operate websites, including www.hindustantimes.com, on which news articles are continuously uploaded. The appellants claim copyright in the articles and images uploaded thereupon.

The appellants filed the present suit alleging infringement of copyright, trademark and passing off against the respondents. According to the appellants, the said respondents own and operate a website which has been reproducing and making available online content from the appellants’ publication. The appellants through the present suit have prayed for an order and decree of permanent injunction restraining the respondents from, in any manner copying, reproducing, hosting, storing, making available, communicating and publishing or facilitating the same on their website www.theworldnews.net or any other website or online location owned or operated by them, in any manner whatsoever, the appellants’ original content thereby amounting to infringement of the appellants’ copyright therein.

Despite service of summons, the respondents neither entered appearance, nor filed written statements and hence were set ex parte.

The appellants highlighted that a cease and desist notice addressed by them to respondents had also not elicited a response. Further even after the ex parte ad interim order was passed, the appellants had received an e-mail from the respondents dated 08.06.2019, offering to enter into a commercial arrangement with the appellants for redirecting 15,00,000 users every month to the appellants’ website. Although the appellants’ attempt to respond to the aforesaid e-mail was not successful, this communication demonstrated the respondents’ awareness of the present suit and also indicated that their non-appearance was deliberate. The appellants have placed on record several print outs from the respondents’ website and the corresponding articles published by the appellants to show that the respondents were indulging in large scale infringement of the appellants’ copyright. Further the appellants’ registered trademark “Hindustan Times” and their registered domain name “www.hindustantimes.com” also appear on the respondents’ website for the purpose of identification of the infringing articles.

According to the court, in view of the above, the appellants had succeeded in establishing that the respondents were guilty of infringement of the appellants’ copyright and hence the suit was decreed in favour of the appellants and they were also entitled to actual costs of the suit, including court fees and counsel’s fees.

Acts/Rules/Orders: Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) – Order I Rule 10; Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) – Order XXXIX Rule 3