TRADEMARK
‘YATRA’ A GENERIC WORD, CANNOT BE MONOPOLIZED
The Delhi HC has rejected Yatra Online Ltd.’s (Plaintiff) plea to restrain Mach Conferences and Events Ltd. (Defendant) from using the marks ‘BookMyYatra’ and ‘BookMyYatra.com’. Justice Tejas Karia held that ‘Yatra’, meaning “travel” in Hindi, is a generic and descriptive term that cannot be monopolized as a trademark. The Court noted that the Plaintiff’s registrations were for device marks and not word marks, and a disclaimer at the time of registration had already clarified that no exclusive rights could be claimed over the word ‘Yatra’. Further, both ‘Yatra’ and ‘.com’ are generic, making ‘Yatra.com’ non-distinctive and incapable of protection under trademark law. It held that the Defendant’s use of ‘BookMyYatra’ was sufficiently distinguishable and did not amount to infringement or passing off. Emphasizing that words of everyday use cannot be monopolized, the Court dismissed the injunction application.
1. Yatra Online Ltd. v. Mach Conferences and Events Ltd., CS(COMM) 1099 of 2024, decided on 22-8-2025
TRADEMARK
EX POPULUS SUES ELON MUSK’S XAI OVER “XAI” TRADE MARK
Blockchain gaming company Ex Populus, creator of the Ethereum-linked Xai network, has filed a trademark infringement and unfair competition suit against Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, in California federal court. The company claims Musk’s use of the “xAI/Xai” brand causes confusion in the gaming and blockchain sectors, and seeks to block such use, cancel certain trademark applications, and recover damages. Ex Populus says it has used the XAI mark in US commerce since mid-2023, but confusion grew after Musk launched xAI in July 2023 and later announced plans for an AI gaming studio. Several outlets mistakenly used Ex Populus’s logo in coverage of Musk’s venture, and xAI’s chatbot Grok misattributed the company’s account. The complaint adds that Musk’s acquisition of an abandoned “X.AI” registration does not establish prior rights, framing the lawsuit as a move to protect Ex Populus’s brand and community.
1. Ex Populus v. xAI, Inc., filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Case No: 3:2025cv07101)
TRADEMARK
DELHI HC CANCELS ‘UNKIND’ TRADEMARK
In a significant win for Mankind Pharma Ltd., the Delhi HC has cancelled the registration of the trademark ‘UNKIND’, held by Ram Kumar (trading as Dr. Kumars Pharmaceuticals), finding it deceptively similar to Mankind Pharma’s established “Kind” family of marks. The Court underscored that Mankind Pharma has used the mark ‘MANKIND’ since 1986 and holds over 300 trademarks incorporating the suffix ‘KIND’, which have acquired distinctiveness and a strong association with the company in the pharmaceutical market. Ram Kumar failed to respond, resulting in an ex parte proceeding. The Court held that the impugned mark was dishonestly adopted to leverage Mankind Pharma’s goodwill and ultimately directed the Trademark Registry to remove the ‘UNKIND’ registration (Application No. 1711563 in Class 35) from its records.
1. Mankind Pharma Ltd. v. Ram Kumar M/s Dr. Kumars Pharmaceuticals & Anr., C.O. (COMM.IPD-TM) 566/2022, decided on August 22, 2025
TRADEMARK
INJUNCTION GRANTED FOR TATA PAY TRADE MARK
The Delhi HC has granted an ex-parte ad-interim dynamic injunction in favour of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., restraining unknown entities from infringing its ‘TATA’ and ‘TATA PAYMENTS’ marks. Justice Tejas Karia passed the order after Tata discovered the website “www.tatapayment.net”, which wholly incorporates its registered marks. The Court noted Tata’s submission that the platform sought to deceive consumers and exploit the goodwill of Tata Pay, the payment solutions arm of Tata Digital Pvt. Ltd., licensed by the RBI as a Payment Aggregator. The Court directed Telegram FZ-LLC to block the suspicious account linked to the impugned website, provide details of its owners in a sealed cover, and comply with future takedown requests concerning similar infringing groups. Cloudflare Inc. was also ordered to suspend access to the website. Summons have been issued in the main suit, which will be heard next on 24th November 2025.
1.Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. v. John Doe, CS(COMM) 817/2025, decided on 25-8-2025
TRADEMARK
DELHI HC RESTRAINS MISUSE OF ‘NDTV’ TRADEMARK
The Delhi HC has granted an ex parte ad-interim injunction in favor of New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) (Plaintiff), preventing several websites, YouTube channels, Telegram groups, X handles, and Facebook pages from misusing its well-known “NDTV” trademark. Several unknown entities were operating domains such as ndtvnews.com, ndtvhindu.com, ndtvforums.com, ndtvbd.com, and ndtv24.in, (Defendants) all incorporating NDTV’s registered mark to misrepresent an association with the broadcaster. The Court observed that the Defendants’ actions likely created public confusion by implying a connection with the established news brand and the various digital platforms riding upon the NDTV mark. NDTV’s trademark, which has also been declared a well-known mark by the Trademarks Registry, was shown to carry strong goodwill and recognition.
1.New Delhi Television v. Ashok Kumar and ors (CS(COMM) 869/2025, I.A. 20320/2025, I.A. 20321/2025, I.A. 20322/2025 & I.A. 20323/2025)
PATENT
PATENT DISPUTE BETWEEN ULTRAHUMAN AND OURA INTENSIFIES
Ultrahuman (Plaintiff) has instituted a patent infringement suit before the Delhi HC against Oura Health Oy and Ouraring Inc. (Defendants), alleging unauthorized use of its patented innovations, including features relating to women’s health, circadian rhythm tracking, and glucose monitoring. The Plaintiff’s patent, granted on 10th September 2024, protects the microcontroller-based processing that derives secondary metrics such as sleep stages, sleep scores, and readiness. The Defendants, however, had previously instituted proceedings against the Plaintiff before a Texas court in 2023, alleging infringement relating to titanium construction, PPG sensors, and social media content. The Plaintiff, through the present action, contends that the Defendants are engaged in a systematic campaign against competitors by relying on US patents acquired through proxies rather than through in-house development. The final ruling in the matter is scheduled for November 2025.
COPYRIGHT
PERPLEXITY AI SUED BY JAPANESE NEWSPAPERS
Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun (Plaintiffs), Japanese newspapers, filed a copyright infringement suit before the Tokyo District Court against Perplexity (Defendant), an Artificial Intelligence startup, seeking an injunction and damages to the amount of 2.2 billion yen. The Plaintiffs allege that Perplexity has copied and stored content from their publications without authorization since June of last year. Notices were issued by the Plaintiffs; however, all such communications were ignored by the Defendant.
COPYRIGHT
SETTLEMENT REACHED IN COPYRIGHT CASE AGAINST HBO
Andrii Pryimachenko (Plaintiff), a Ukrainian creative director, reached a settlement before the New York Court with Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO) (Defendant). The Plaintiff alleged that HBO copied and used his work in the “Chernobyl” miniseries without crediting him as the author. The proceedings continued for more than six years and finally settled this year. According to the terms of the settlement, the details of the agreement cannot be disclosed publicly. The Plaintiff emphasized that this case sets a significant precedent in successfully defending a Ukrainian’s copyright against one of the largest American media corporations.
COPYRIGHT
US AUTHORS SETTLE COPYRIGHT SUIT AGAINST ANTHROPIC
US Authors (Plaintiffs) instituted a class-action suit against Anthropic PBC (Defendant), an AI startup. The Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendant, without license, or authorization, scraped and ingested thousands of their copyrighted works for the purpose of training its artificial intelligence system, ‘Claude.’ The action, which commenced in 2024, has now been resolved through a settlement. Under the terms thereof, the Defendant has agreed to provide compensation to the affected authors, to undertake commitments aimed at enhancing transparency in the training of its AI models, to disclose data sources utilized, and to implement an opt-out mechanism enabling authors to protect their works from unauthorized use.
