Recently, the Delhi High Court granted Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. an ex-parte ad interim injunction restraining the defendant, Ishant Kashiwal, trading as, The Hogwarts Kafe, from using THE HOGWARTS KAFE and/or THE WIZARDING WORLD marks.
The plaintiff, is a leading entertainment and media platform and is well-recognized in the field of production, distribution and licensing of television programming and distribution of product and brand licensing of their prior used and registered trade marks HOGWARTS and HARRY POTTER since the year 1997. The Plaintiff also claimed to be a proprietor of the mark THE WIZARDING WORLD, that is being used since the year 2020. It was the plaintiff’s case that the defendant has dishonestly adopted and is using the marks THE HOGWARTS KAFE and THE WIZARDING WORLD as the name of its cafe/restaurant, which, as per the Plaintiff, is deceptively similar to HOGWARTS and THE WIZARDING WORLD marks.
The Delhi Court held that the plaintiff has made prima facie case in its favour. Consequently, the court restrained the defendant from using the HOGWARTS and THE WIZARDING WORLD marks till the next date of hearing and directed him to remove all references to the HOGWARTS and THE WIZARDING WORLD marks from his listings on third party websites and social media pages.