- (1.) The Court : In view of the good grounds shown, the delay of three days in preferring the appeal is condoned and the appeal is taken up for immediate consideration.
(2.) This is one of the matters where it requires little argument to settle an issue. The fight is between REPUBLIC TV asserting its brand name and a small portal owner which publishes Hindi news under the domain name of REPUBLIC HINDI.
(3.) It is not as if REPUBLIC HINDI started years before REPUBLIC TV came to be launched, or even that REPUBLIC HINDI had earned considerable goodwill by the time REPUBLIC TV was born. Even in such a situation, the overbearing presence of the big name may result in the smaller party not being entitled to carry on despite the initial adoption of its name by the smaller party not being mala fide. In this case, REPUBLIC TV was launched on May 6, 2017 which was the same day on which the domain name of REPUBLIC HINDI was obtained by the defendant-appellant. It is a common knowledge - and judicial notice has to be taken of it, as a result - that right from its launch, REPUBLIC TV was big. Whether or not you subscribe to the channel, far less subscribe to the views expressed therein, you could scarcely be an informed Indian citizen without being aware of REPUBLIC TV and its antics. The defendant cannot be even spoken of in the same breath as REPUBLIC TV.;