Champak Magazine Moves Delhi High Court Alleging Trademark Infringement By BCCI Over Naming IPL Robot Dog ‘Champak’

Champak Magazine on Wednesday filed a trademark infringement suit before the Delhi High Court against Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over naming of Indian Premier League’s (IPL) AI robot dog as “Champak.”

Justice Saurabh Banerjee issued notice on the interim injunction application filed by the comic magazine and granted four weeks’ time for filing of written responses.

Recently, the IPL witnesses the debut of a robotic dog camera which has been introduced by global broadcast technology leader wTVision in collaboration with Omnicam and BCCI.

During the hearing today, the counsel appearing for Delhi Press Patra Prakashan Private Limited, the company which operates Champak Magazine, submitted that BCCI has infringed the magazine’s registered trademark by naming the robotic dog as “Champak.”

He said that the alleged unauthorised use of the “Champak” mark by BCCI is infringement of its registered trademark and would amount to taking unfair advantage, especially when the same is used in a commercial setting.

On the Court’s query as to what is the commercial element in using the name “Champak”, the counsel said that using the said word on a product and advertising or marketing it on various platforms and earning revenue out of it would amount to commercial use.

The judge responded that the magazine has to satisfy the Court not by words but by appropriate pleadings on the question of grant of interim injunction.

“Where is the averment that what kind of commercial element is involved? And the tournament is ongoing. They are using it for whatever reason but it will be too early for me to decide this. They are using the AI generated dog for whatever reason but the instagram page clearly shows that [it is] based on fan votes, which is clearly their choice. Tell me what is the [commercial] element?,” the Court remarked.

The Court further remarked that there was no pleading per se shown by Champak Magazine on Section 29(4) of the Trademarks Act, which deals with trademark infringement where a registered trademark has a reputation in India, and a person uses a similar or identical mark in relation to goods or services that are not similar to those for which the trademark is registered.

On the other hand, Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak appeared for BCCI and submitted that “Champak” is not a coined word, and in fact is the name of a flower.

He submitted that Champak is not the only existing brand and is associated with other characters as well and not the magazine alone.

It was also submitted that multiple publications, after BCCI announced adaption of the robot dog, said that it was another character inspired from the show Tarak Mehta ka Ulta Chashma.

Deepak also submitted that the magazine’s claim that Champak word is exclusively theirs needs to be tested at the trial.

The Court issued notice on the magazine’s plea for interim injuction and listed the matter for hearing next on July 09.

Title: Delhi Press Patra Prakashan Private Limited v. BCCI & Anr.

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