MUMBAI: India’s two leading stations, ENIL’s Radio Mirchi and HT Media’s Radio Nasha have knocked the doors of Delhi High Court, post a trademark dispute raised by the former on the latter radio station.
ENIL says that Radio Nasha has copied the name ‘Nasha’ from their online radio station, Pehla Nasha. They also claimed that the station has exploited their same content as that of Pehla Nasha.
While ENIL’s radio streams retro music, ‘Pehla Nasha’, powered by Gaana.com was launched in 2014 as a 24-hour nonstop internet radio channel, HT Media’s Radio Nasha was launched in March 2016. HT Media did apply for trademark registration and approval before the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is also said that ENIL had objected HT Media’s move, but they did not take it seriously and went ahead with announcing about the new launch of the station on 9 March 2016. Later the following day, ENIL filed a suit against HT Media in Delhi High Court on this dispute.
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The case was on for the past two years. And, in the arguments made on Friday, HT Media said that Pehla Nasha is an online radio channel while Radio Nasha is an on-air property. They also kept a point that the URL for Pehla Nasha is www.radiomirchi.com and not www.pehlanasha.com. But, the court disagreed with HT Media’s view.
As per the conclusion, the court has accepted Radio Mirchi’s application against HT Media, restraining them from using the word ‘Nasha’ for their radio service during the pendency of the suit. The court has also given 30 days to HT Media for making the required changes with the station name.
