CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained 18 major telecom service providers from sending Short Messaging Service (SMS) relating to scores, match alerts and updates of India-Pakistan One-Day International cricket matches.

The mobile majors include Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Reliance Infocomm Limited, Hutchison Essar Limited, Aircel Cellular Limited, Tata Indicom, Sify Limited, India Times, Rediff.com and Cricinfo India.

Justice M. Chockalingam granted the interim injunction on a civil suit from the Chennai-based Marksman Marketing Services Private Limited, which is the exclusive global SMS rights-holder for the cricket series.

According to the applicant, the company had entered into an agreement with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on December 29, 2005, for the SMS rights of India's tour of Pakistan in January-February 2006.

"The PCB has granted the exclusive rights to disseminate information relating to scores, alerts and updates and or other events or happenings in the tour via SMS on wireless and mobile telephones on a global basis to the VectraCom Private Limited," the petition said.

The applicant-company had obtained exclusive territorial rights for India from the VectraCom, it said, adding, "any violation of the SMS rights by any telecom operators constitutes an infringement of the intellectual property of the PCB."

Charging these telecom operators with "exploiting the rights belonging to the applicant-company in a commercial way and earning huge profits," the petition said, "the agreement makes it crystal clear that all the mobile operators within the territory of India should obtain permission from Marksman, who is the only exclusive rights-holder with VectraCom, which is the only authorised entity to commercially exploit and provide scores, alerts and updates via SMS technology during the India-Pakistan ODI series."

Admitting the civil suit, Mr. Justice Chockalingam ordered notices to a total of 18 telecom operators besides the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), returnable by four weeks.

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