The Viveck Goenka-controlled The Indian Express, which also owns the Financial Express, has sued The New Indian Express owned by cousin Manoj Kumar Sonthalia for alleged violation of the terms of a 1995-settlement agreement.
The two groups had reached a settlement following a case filed in Mumbai High Court regarding the use of registered trade mark “ie” (short for Indian Express). As per the settlement New Indian Express agreed not to use that expression for branding in any of its publications.
The case filed in Delhi High court against Express Publications Madurai Ltd that publishes New Indian Express, for displaying The New Indian Express as a brand in Sunday Standard, which according to the complainants is a violation of the agreement that apparently prevents the title being used in any state other than Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Orissa where Sonthalia has right to operate in.
Last month, Sonthalia had launched a weekend newspaper The Sunday Standard in New Delhi, which is the headquarters of the Indian Express.
“The issue is not about the weekly, but about the use of the title The New Indian Express in different parts of Sunday Standard,” a senior executive at the Indian Express group told DNA. “As long as they desist from using the title, we have no problems with Sunday Standard.”
Gopal Jain lawyer for New Indian Express said that the title is a registered trademark and hence it is the prerogative of the organization to use it anywhere it chooses to. “How can anybody else tell us where to or where not to use a title for which we have the copyright,” Jain said. “Further, the title was only used in a 'home ad' on Sunday Standard and not even as a tag line or as a title along with the mast-head.”
Further, according to Jain, the 1995-settlement talks only about daily newspapers and not about weekly publications such as Sunday Standard and hence the premise of latest case itself is mis-guided.
