Kolkata High Court stays BloombergUTV's advertising campaign

The Honourable High Court of Kolkata today has granted an interim injunction restraining UTV News Ltd and UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd from continuing with an advertising campaign they started running recently. The injunction was granted on a petition filed by HT Media Ltd against infringement of Intellectual Property Rights.

The advertisements released by BloombergUTV bore a striking resemblance to the advertisements released by Mint, HT Media's business daily, for its launch campaign in Kolkata and Chennai in 2009. Both set of ads have a mix of English and Greek words symbolising the complicated way in which business news is often delivered.

The interim injunction restricts the "printing, publishing, circulating any advertisement containing Greek symbols or words with use of English words and clarity in business news in the manner as done by the petitioner".

HT Media had served a legal notice on BloombergUTV prior to approaching the Honourable High Court of Kolkata to stop the infringement of HT Media's Intellectual Property Rights. In their interim reply, BloombergUTV denied any case of infringement of IPR.

Speaking on this development, Benoy Roychowdhury, Executive Director, HT Media Ltd said, "Mint has been built on the premise of delivering clarity in business news. We have used various advertising approaches to convey this unique proposition over the last three years. The English & Greek creative used for the Kolkata and Chennai launch campaign of Mint was yet another effort in the same direction. At HT Media, we are very keen to protect our Intellectual Property Rights."