SAFEGUARDING THE ICONIC VISUAL IDENTITY OF THE AAJ TAK LOGO

In its recent significant judgement Delhi High Court extended protection to its well-known trademark in Indian media sector by granting an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in the favour of Living Media Ltd which is one of the major media corporations in India, engaged in diverse business activities ranging from printing, publishing of magazines, journals, periodicals and newspapers including the popular news channel ‘AAJ TAK’. In 1995 the Aaj Tak mark obtained it’s registration under class 9. The Trademark ‘AAJ TAK’ including its distinctive logo with a red white black color combination, has been declared as a ‘well-known mark’ under Section 2(1) (zg) of The Trade Mark Act, 1999,

owing to its long standing use and extensive reputation.

In 2025 the plaintiff’s came to discover that the defendants had been operating a digital news channel on the Jio TV platform using the marks ‘CHARCHA AAJ KI’, which is visually identical and is deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s registered ‘AAJ TAK’ Trademark.

Plaintiffs contended that by the virtue of continuous, extensive and uninterrupted use of mark and other formative marks over decades, built a formidable goodwill and reputation and the intent of the defendant in using the impugned mark is clearly to ride on the enviable reputation of the plaintiffs by misrepresenting to the public that its mark is associated with the plaintiffs.

Justice Jyoti Singh of The Delhi High Court acknowledged the status of Aaj Tak as a well known trademark and noted that a strong prima facie case was established in the favour of Living Media Ltd. The Court further directed that the defendant shall not directly or indirectly, use the impugned mark to the extent it is similar/identical or deceptively similar to plaintiff's registered trademarks and other formative trademarks with distinctive red-white-black color combination and outline borders, in any manner whatsoever, on its channel and websites and/or any social media or any other platform, so as to amount to infringement. Defendant will, however be at liberty to use the words/expression Charcha Aaj ki in a manner that does not infringe the plaintiff's mark.

Article by - Sayani Kesh