Zee wins battle over 'FX'

Subhash Chandra-controlled Zee Telefilms and ASC Enterprises have won a case against Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation over the use of mark FX. The Delhi high court has dismissed the petition filed by the latter.

Twentieth Century Fox in its petition prayed that ASC/ Zee be restrained from using the mark 'FX'. It claimed that the mark "FX" is being used by it extensively since 1994 and in fact a channel by the name "FX" has been launched in the UK and US in 1994.

Zee/ASC had, however, agreed to alter the logo to MX with letter Z inscribed on the top of the logo so as to clearly identify the same with Zee and to remove any doubt or confusion in two competing marks.

However, 'FX' refused to accept the said offer of changed logo from Zee Network and pressed ahead with its petition for interim injunction.

However, according to justice Mukul Mudgal, the alteration agreed to by Zee was sufficient to distinguish Zee's MX channel from the FX channel.

ASC Enterprises Ltd is the first licensee of direct-to-home services in India and it offers a bouquet of channels including Zee, ESPN Star Sports and various movie channels. The 'FX' channel is an English Action movie channel of Zee available on DTH platform of ASC.