UTV secures injunction on a fake film casting agency in Noida

MUMBAI: After a civil suit filed on 12 December by UTV Software Communications for infringement of registered trade mark, passing off and indulging into unfair trade competition, the Delhi High Court has passed an ad-interim injunction against a fake casting agency running under the name of UTV in Noida, UP.

Pursuant to a search conducted on the internet by UTV, it was revealed that there was a page displayed on the social networking site Facebook by the name ?UTV Entertainment Media Pvt. Ltd?. Vide a notice dated 1 December, UTV duly lodged a complaint with Facebook notifying them that the logo appearing on the Facebook page of ?UTV Entertainment Media Pvt. Ltd? was deceptively similar to the registered logo of UTV.

On receipt of the complaint, the said platform discontinued access to the page of ?UTV Entertainment Media Pvt. Ltd?.

Speaking on the development, UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur said, "There are many legitimate casting agencies that follow a strict code of conduct.

"But cases like these, where the names of reputed studios are used to dupe unsuspecting aspirants, unfortunately lead to suspicion in the general public about all casting agencies. We have taken the strongest action available to us and we appeal to the authorities to take a strong stance to ensure such incidents do not take place in the future."

The similarities in the two logos used by the Plaintiff and Defendants respectively were also pointed out to the Court which was also informed about the fact that unlike the Plaintiff, who were well-reputed in the entertainment field, the Defendant company was not even a registered company and was passing its business off as that of the Plaintiff.

The Court issued notice in the matter and further granted ad-interim injunction sought by the Plaintiff (UTV) against all defendants including the unknown defendants thereby restraining them from Using the trademark/tradename of the Plaintiff, Passing off their services for those of the Plaintiff and Disposing off or dealing with their assets, in a manner which may adversely affect the Plaintiff?s ability to recover damages.