Mr Justice Raymond Pace in the First Hall of the Civil Court yesterday dismissed an application filed by Grace Borg for the issue of a warrant of prohibitory injunction against Mermaid Media Entertainment Ltd.

Ms Borg had requested the court to prohibit the company from making use of the name Malta Television Awards in the media, or on any promotional material.

She claimed that she was the owner of the trademark National Television Awards and of a logo of this name and that the use of the name Malta Television Awards by the company would create confusion between the two.

According to Ms Borg, the company was advertising the Malta Television Awards that are taking place on Saturday at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

She submitted that she would suffer irremediable harm if the company was allowed to make use of the name Malta Television Awards as this would be in violation of her rights as a trademark owner and her right to protection against unfair competition. But Mermaid Media Entertainment Ltd said that Ms Borg was entitled to the exclusive use of the words "National", "Television" and "Awards" only where these words were used together and in sequence.

The company denied that the two names (Malta Television Awards and National Television Awards) were easily confused, for the logos were different.

It added that Ms Borg had never advertised any event, and that to date she had only registered the trademark.

Mermaid Media Entertainment said that the situation would be different if it and Ms Borg were both organising events at the same time.

Mr Justice Pace ruled that the legal requirements for the issue of the warrant of prohibitory injunction were not satisfied. The court added that Ms Borg had other remedies at her disposal.

A spokesman for Mermaid Media Entertainment said Ms Borg's court action had caused it to cancel its advertising for the event, which is to be held tomorrow.

"Luckily, this did not last too long, and after a couple of hours, the ban was lifted. Nevertheless, it still sent us into a panic for a while," the spokesman said.