The Delhi High Court has granted an ex-parte ad interim injunction in favour of the plaintiff (CMYK Printech Ltd), and restrained the defendant (MS Ideal Multi Media Network), its directors, officers, agents, servants, representatives, and all others acting on its behalf, from reproducing, copying, downloading, extracting, publishing, printing, distributing, or in any manner whatsoever exploiting the plaintiff’s copyrighted newspaper “The Pioneer”, including its content, articles, layout, format, compilation, photographs, and design.
The High Court also restrained the defendants from representing themselves as a franchisee, licensee, or authorized user of the mark ‘The Pioneer’, in any manner whatsoever. They are also restrained from collecting revenue, soliciting advertisements, or entering into any commercial transactions using the mark “The Pioneer”.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that upon comparing the two publications, that the publication of the newspaper is a coordinated and layered process involving editing, designing, visual creation, and compilation. It noted that the plaintiff and its editorial board exercise intellect in the creation, curation, and presentation of contents, and that the preparation of original head notes, summaries, selection of fonts, column widths, spacing, and headline style are unique and copyrightable.
The Bench observed that, prima facie, the defendant is copying/imitating and publishing the contents of the newspaper published by the plaintiff. It further noted that following the termination notice dated Feb 17, 2026, the defendant’s continued usage of the trademark ‘The Pioneer’, its label, and the copyrightable news reports appears to tantamount to unauthorized and illegal adoption and infringement of not only the trademarks but also the copyrights of the plaintiff.
Thus, the Bench concluded that the plaintiff has been able to evidence a prima facie strong case in its favour, the balance of convenience is tilted in favour of the plaintiff, and the plaintiff shall suffer irreparable loss and injury, which may not be compensated adequately in monetary terms, if an ex-parte ad interim injunction is not granted.
Briefly, the plaintiff claims to be the publisher of the newspaper ‘The Pioneer’, which was started in the year 1865 and acquired by the plaintiff from the Thapar Group in the year 1998, vesting the plaintiff with the right to curate, print, and publish the newspaper. The plaintiff holds trademark registrations for ‘The Pioneer’ and its label in Class 16 and 41, granted on June 19, 2018 for a period of ten years with effect from Nov 28, 2011, claiming user since the year 1864. The plaintiff asserts that the news content, the marks ‘The Pioneer’, and the label constitute an ‘Original literary work’ under the Copyrights Act, 1957, of which the plaintiff is the owner.
In March 10, 2004, the plaintiff executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in favour of the defendant to publish ‘The Pioneer’ from Bhopal, for which the defendant was to pay a royalty of Rs. 2 lakhs per month. Following the withdrawal of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) proceedings against the plaintiff, the plaintiff sent a legal notice on March 08, 2025 demanding unpaid dues of Rs. 1.81 lakhs accruing from September 2023 to December 2024.
The plaintiff terminated the arrangement on July 02, 2025, which was temporarily extended up to Dec 31, 2025, but ultimately ended the MoU vide a notice dated Feb 17, 2026 due to the defendant’s failure to remit the assured payment of Rs. 47.45 lakhs. Despite the termination of the MoU, the defendant continued to publish identical news reports and materials, which the plaintiff claims is a violation and infringement of its statutory rights under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, and the Copyrights Act, 1957, as well as an act of passing off.
Appearances:
Advocates Saurav Agrawal, Asan Rajan, Ajay Sharma, Vikash Tomar, Devang Shrotriya, Kashish Chadha and Harsh Khabar, for the Plaintiff
NA, for the Defendant
