The Bombay High Court has upheld an interim order restricting the use of “The New Indian Express” brand beyond specified southern territories, reinforcing trademark boundaries within the Indian Express Group.
A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande dismissed an appeal by Express Publications (Madurai), confirming an earlier single-judge ruling that had granted relief to The Indian Express in a trademark dispute between the two entities.
The case stems from a long-standing arrangement within the Indian Express Group following the death of founder Ramnath Goenka in 1991. Under a 1995 Memorandum of Settlement (MoS), later supplemented in 2005, ownership of the “Indian Express” trademark remained with The Indian Express, while Express Publications (Madurai) was given limited rights to use the derivative title “The New Indian Express”.
However, those rights were geographically restricted, allowing use of the “New Indian Express” brand only for publishing newspapers in specific southern states and select Union Territories.
The dispute resurfaced after Express Publications organised an event titled“The New Indian Express – Mumbai Dialogues” in September 2024—outside the permitted territories. The Indian Express argued that such usage violated the settlement agreement and infringed its trademark rights.
In November 2025, a single-judge bench restrained Express Publications from using the “New Indian Express” name for events, programmes, or commercial activities outside the agreed territories, noting that the title is merely a derivative of the original mark.
Upholding that decision, the division bench found no infirmity or perversity in the earlier order and refused to interfere.
The court agreed that the rights granted to Express Publications were limited and conditional and did not extend beyond newspaper publishing within designated regions.
The ruling also emphasised that using the brand outside these boundaries could dilute the goodwill of the “Indian Express” trademark, which remains exclusively owned by The Indian Express group.
The judgment underscores the importance of strict adherence to contractual and territorial limitations in trademark law, particularly in cases involving legacy media brands and family settlements.
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