HC refuses to temporarily restrain firm from using mark 'BookMyShow'

The Delhi High Court has refused the plea of online booking platform 'BookMyShow' for temporarily restraining its competitor from using the mark 'Bookmyevent'.

Justice Jayant Nath said plaintiff Bigtree Entertainment Pvt Ltd, owner of 'BookMyShow', has failed to make out a prima facie case and dismissed the interim prayer saying the court does not see any reason to grant any injunction order in its favour.

Bigtree has sought to permanently restrain Bookmyevent, its partners and proprietors from using the mark 'Bookmyevent' or using the prefix 'BOOKMY' as trade mark/trade name or as part of corporate/domain name/trading name in online ticketing services or any similar services.

The court referred to a judgement of its division bench and said it cannot be forgotten that 'Book My' is a common English term and its link with booking for shows, events and films is "but obvious".

"It is a common general term descriptive of the services which are sought to be provided, namely, booking of a show, event, movie etc. That apart a closer look at the mark shows that prima facie the visual effect of both trade marks is not the same in the minds of the buyers," it said.

"Prima facie the colour scheme, the font used by the defendant are entirely different and people are unlikely to be misguided or confused by the said trade names and looks of the defendant's trade mark," the court said.

"Plaintiff has failed to make out a prima facie case. I do not see any reason to grant any injunction order in favour of the plaintiff. I dismiss the applications of the plaintiff...," the judge said.

The high court, in December 2014, had passed an ex-parte interim injunction restraining the defendants from using the mark 'Bookmyevent' or using the prefix 'BookMy' as trade mark/trade name.

However, in January, 2015, the restraint order was kept in abeyance and another application was filed by Bigtree to restrain the defendants.

Bigtree had argued that by extensive sales and wide publicity, its trade mark 'BookMyShow' as acquired secondary meaning and has come to be exclusively associated with the plaintiff. The prefix BookMy' is also an essential part of the plaintiff's registered trade mark, it had said.

It had claimed that it was shocked to find that the defendants have adopted the brand 'Bookmyevent' in relation to the same line of business as the plaintiff's 'BookMyShow' business.

The defendant, however, argued that 'BookMy' is a generic term used substantially in the industry and cannot be a subject matter of any trade mark and that it was using the mark 'Bookmyevent', the features and colour combination of which are entirely different.