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Informist, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – Hearing a trademark infringement suit by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., the Delhi High Court Friday restrained journalist Rajat Srivastava, founder of the Delhi Today Group, and others from using the trademark "Tata", the name "Tata Trust", and the late Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Naval Tata's name or photograph in any form.

 

The petitioners had filed the suit against Srivastava for planning an event called "Ratan Tata National Icon Award 2025" and "India Visionary Leaders Summit 2025" on Feb. 10 in New Delhi, giving the impression that this was supported and endorsed by the Tata Group.

 

Srivastava's counsel said the social media post for the event had been taken down, and the event had been cancelled. Noting this, the court passed a decree in favour of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Tata Sons, and directed Srivastava and the company founded by him, Yuci Mentors Pvt. Ltd., to file an affidavit in two days that they will not use registered trademarks of the Tatas and the name and photographs of the late Ratan Tata in any form, including for conferring any award.

 

"Ratan Tata is a well-known figure and his name is liable to be protected and cannot be used by a third party without consent," the court said. It will hear the case again Wednesday to peruse the affidavit filed by the parties.

 

Ratan Naval Tata died aged 86 in October. He had been chairman of Tata Sons from 1991 till his retirement in December 2012. After that, he held the honorary title of chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries Ltd., Tata Motors Ltd., Tata Steel Ltd., and Tata Chemicals Ltd.

 

In December, the petitioners learnt that Srivastava and others were using the name of Ratan Tata to host an event called "Ratan Tata National Icon Award 2024" on Dec. 10. The defendants had circulated posts on social media and their website about the event. Srivastava was charging a nomination fee of INR 3,000 from Indian applicants and $100 from international applicants for the event, and claiming association with the Tata Trusts, Tata Group, and Ratan Tata, the petitioners said. 

 

Consequently, the plaintiffs issued a takedown notice to Srivastava, asking him to remove the posts on his website and social media accounts and stop using the registered trademark Tata, the name and logos of the Tata Trusts, and the personal name of Ratan Tata.

 

In the last week of January, the plaintiffs learnt that Srivastava and others had put up a fresh post, now claiming to host an event by the name "Ratan Tata National Icon Award 2025" and "India Visionary Leaders Summit 2025" on Monday at the Constitution Club of India and Maharashtra Sadan, New Delhi. The defendants had also released a list of awardees to be honoured at the event.

 

The petitioners said these activities of the defendants were making members of the public believe that the events were sponsored or otherwise endorsed by the Tatas.

 

As of Mar. 31, 2024, the 26 publicly listed companies of the Tata Group had a combined market capitalization of about INR 30.6 trillion, said the petitioners.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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