Case Law
Living Media India v. Alpha Dealcom — "Aaj Tak" Trademark Case
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Citation & Court
Living Media India Ltd. & Anr. v. Alpha Dealcom Pvt. Ltd. & Ors., Delhi High Court, Division Bench, reported at 2016 (66) PTC 200 (Del), upholding a single judge's refusal of an interim injunction.
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The Dispute
Living Media publishes the magazine INDIA TODAY, runs the news channels HEADLINES TODAY and AAJ TAK (“till today”), and held registrations for the word TODAY in Classes 16 and 35, along with marks such as BUSINESS TODAY. Alpha Dealcom adopted NATION TODAY for a news channel. Living Media sued for infringement and passing off and sought to stop the use of TODAY pending trial.
What the Court Held
The Division Bench dismissed Living Media's appeal, leaving the refusal of an interim injunction in place. It held that TODAY is a common dictionary word, descriptive and generic in the context of news and current affairs, and already used by many other channels and products, such as RUSSIA TODAY, LIVE TODAY and MANAGEMENT TODAY. The distinctiveness of Living Media's marks lay in combinations such as INDIA TODAY, not in the word TODAY alone, and NATION TODAY was not deceptively similar to INDIA TODAY or HEADLINES TODAY. The TODAY registrations were in Classes 16 and 35, not for broadcasting. Nor did the use of AAJ TAK, meaning “till today”, show that TODAY by itself had acquired a secondary meaning pointing to Living Media.
How to Use This in Your Reply
Use this whenever a party with a strong, well-known brand tries to claim exclusivity over a common English word simply because that word appears inside their famous mark. The presence of multiple independent, permitted third-party users of the same word in the same trade is strong evidence against any single party's claim to distinctiveness in that word alone.
Key takeaway: Fame in a composite mark does not automatically extend exclusivity to a common word buried inside it, if that word remains in genuine industry-wide use.
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