Why RCB moved Delhi High Court against Uber Moto ad featuring SRH's Travis Head? WATCH HERE

On May 13, Tuesday, the Chinnaswamy Stadium will witness the  Indian Premier League (IPL) clash between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and SunRisers Hyderabad. However, the rivalry between the two south Indian teams has elevated to a different level after the Bengaluru-based franchise moved the Delhi High Court on Thursday accusing a YouTube advertisement of "disparaging its trademark."

 

 

According to reports, Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited filed a suit against Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd claiming that Uber Moto’s YouTube advertisement titled “Baddies in Bengaluru” disparages its trademark. But how does Kavya Maran's SRH gets involved in the matter? Because it is SunRisers Hyderabad’s Australian opener Travis Head who features as the main character in the video and "disparages" the RCB trademark!

 

According to the RCB counsel, the video advertisement shows Travis Head running towards Bengaluru cricket stadium to vandalise the signage of “Bengaluru Vs Hyderabad.” The batter takes a spray paint and writes “Royally Challenged” before Bengaluru making it “Royally Challenged Bengaluru” which disparages RCB’s mark, the counsel claimed. The advertisement garnered 1.3 million views and numerous comments from users on the social media platform.

 

The lawyer contended that when a negative comment is made, there is disparagement. It was also pointed out that Uber Moto, being the commercial sponsor of Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL team, used RCB’s trademark in the course of its trade, that too its “deceptive variant”, which was impermissible under law.

 

According to news agency PTI, Justice Saurabh Banerjee, after hearing submissions of parties on Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s interim plea for injunction, reserved its order.

 

The news agency added that the counsel representing Uber said RCB had “severely discounted” the sense of humour of the public at large. The general messaging of the advertisement, the counsel said, was that there was a match between RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Bengaluru cricket stadium on May 13 and since it was a city with traffic jam, “public must use Uber Moto”.

 

Uber’s counsel said good humour, sense of fun and banter are intrinsic to advertising messaging and these factors “will be killed” if such a standard, as mooted by RCB, is applied.

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