ANI MEDIA PVT. LTD Vs. VINAY G DAVID

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

(2.) The present suit has been filed by the Plaintiff seeking protection of the registered trademark - 'ANI ' which was adopted by the Plaintiff in the year 1971. The Plaintiff is ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. The Defendants who are arrayed in the present suit are Defendant No.1-Mr. Vinay G. David and Defendant No.2-Mr. Sanjay Halder. Defendant No.3-PDR Ltd. is the Registrar of the domain name - www.aninewsindia.com. Defendant No.4 - Google LLC is the search engine and Defendant No.5 - Meta Platforms Inc. is the social media platform i.e., formally known as Facebook Inc. where the Defendant Nos. 1 and 2 have used the mark 'ANI ' in their respective accounts.

(3.) The case of the Plaintiff is that it is a well-established multimedia news agency offering syndicated news feed with over 100 news bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe under the name of 'Asia News International ' and 'ANI '. The Plaintiff 's case is that it is the prior adopter, user and registered owner of the ANI marks in India since at least 2003. To this end, the Plaintiff also states that it has been operating in the said business for over five decades since the year 1971. The international news agency Reuters is also stated to be a significant shareholder and business affiliate of the Plaintiff. Moreover, 'ANI ', are also registered trademarks of the Plaintiff in various classes such as Class 16 and Class 38, as has been detailed in paragraph 2 of the plaint. The Plaintiff 's mark ANI is also an integral part of the Plaintiff 's registered domain names www.aniin.com and www.aninews.in since 1999 and 2010 and have been used uninterruptedly since then. The Plaintiff is also stated to have a vast digital presence with more than 6.3 million followers on its Twitter account.