Vistara moves court over trademark

Vistara, the Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture, has moved the Karnataka High Court in a legal battle with a travel agent over trademark.

The airline filed a petition in the court in December challenging a lower court's jurisdiction to hear a suit that sought to restrain it from using the Vistara  trademark. The petition will come up for hearing on Tuesday.

Last August, Tata-Singapore Airlines settled on Vistara as the brand name for their airline. Vistara began services last month from its Delhi base.

Vistara Voyages, a Bengaluru-based travel agency, filed a suit in a civil court in that city seeking to restrain Tata-Singapore Airlines from using the Vistara trademark. Vistara Voyages, set up in 2008, offers leisure and corporate travel services and filed the suit claiming distinctiveness in service with the brand name.
 

WHAT’S IN A NAME

• Vistara filed a petition in the court in December challenging a lower court’s jurisdiction to hear a suit that sought to restrain it from using the Vistara trademark
• The airline began services last month from its Delhi base

The airline filed an application in the civil court challenging its  jurisdiction  to hear the suit but its plea was rejected. In December, the airline filed a writ petition in the high court challenging the civil court order.

"Our company has filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court challenging the civil court order on issues of jurisdiction. We have also challenged the cause of action for the suit and our application is pending in the civil court," an airline spokesperson said. "It is for the courts to decide the questions of distinctiveness and scope of legal rights after evaluating the facts placed before them and by applying the correct law," the spokesman added.

Both Tata-Singapore Airlines and Vistara Voyages  applied last year to the Controller General of Patents Design & Trademarks to register their trademarks.

The airline is also facing an objection in the registration of its trademark. After examining the airline's application, the registrar of trademarks, Delhi, said it was "liable to be refused".

"All trademarks are processed by the trademark office according to its prescribed procedures. Guidelines and information about all applications are publicly available.