Delhi High Court has ordered an Indian publisher to pay up Rs 16 lakh as damages for illegally using the brand name "Time" and restrained it from imitating the red border distinctive design on the international magazine.

In an ex-parte decree, the court restrained the publisher and printer of Hindi magazine "TIME ASIA SANSKARAN" from publishing the magazine under the title.

The order said "an ex-parte decree of permanent injunction is passed in favour of the plaintiff (Time Inc) and against the defendants (printer and publisher of the Hindi magazine) and their officers, agents and all others acting through them from printing, publishing, issuing and advertising their magazine under the trade name 'TIME ASIA SANSKARAN'.”

Further, the domestic publisher was restrained from using the component "Time" in conjunction with any prefix or suffix or from using the trade name "Time" or "Time Asia" and also from imitating the red border distinctive design on the magazine published by them.

Time Inc, through Indian solicitor firm Anand and Anand, had filed the lawsuit in 1999 alleging that the Delhi-based publisher misappropriated the words 'TIME ASIA" despite knowing that the mark "Time" was a registered trade mark of the American publisher having trans-border reputation and goodwill.