Deck cleared for release of Karan Johar's 'KANK' on August 11

New Delhi, July 28 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today cleared the deck for the release of Karan Johar's multistarrer 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' (KANK) on August 11 by dismissing the petition of another film director, who claimed to have registered the title first for his movie.

While dismissing the petition of director Biswaroop Roy Choudhary, Justice Vikramjit Sen said, ''Neither of the parties has authored or conceived the catchy phrase or title 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna', which has been on the lips of any number of persons on any given day throughout India.'' The Court refused to grant injunction on the release of the Karan Johar film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta and Abhishek Bachchan and said, ''After careful consideration I am of the opinion that Choudhary was not entitled to an injunction.'' ''Where words or phrases in common parlance are sought to be used with exclusivity, the court should take care to determine which of the parties has ended its journey or traversed appreciably longer way. Proprietary or exclusive use of a common word should not be given jural imprimatur,'' said the 8-page order.

Choudhary claimed in his petition that he had applied for the registration of the title KANK on May 17, 2005 under the Trade Marks Act and the 'muhoorat' of the film was taken place in the presence of actress star Aruna Irani on June 23, 2005.

However, Counsel Vikash Dhawan contended that Karan Johar had approached the Secretary of the Association of Motion pictures and TV Programme Producers for the title on January 13, 2005.

UNI PAT YA KP1951