Recently, the Delhi High Court, granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in favour of MM Styles Private Limited (“Plaintiff”) restraining Masaba Couture & Ors. (“Defendants”) from using the Plaintiff’s registered trademark as well as copyright in its artistic works, including photographs/images, garments, dress style, etc.
The Plaintiff is engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling/retailing designer garments, jewellery, cosmetics, and other luxury products, designed and conceptualised by famous Bollywood designer, Mr. Manish Malhotra. As per the Plaintiff, the Defendants appear to be operating in collusion, and are copying images from the Plaintiff’s website and social media handles. The Defendant were also found soliciting orders for reproduction of the styles/outfits denoted in the copied images, claiming to customise the exact same outfit for customers. The Plaintiff, accordingly, sent legal notices to some of the Defendants through Instagram, which they acknowledged, and removed the infringing pages. However, the Defendants continued uploading new infringing images.
As per the Plaintiff, it is evident from a comparison the Plaintiff’s work and the images on the Defendants’ social media pages that the Defendants have strained every nerve to (i) infringe the Plaintiff’s copyright in the proprietary images present on the Plaintiff’s website and social media handles, (ii) infringe the copyright in the Plaintiff’s artistic works, i.e., the outfits as designed and created by the Plaintiff, and (iii) pass off themselves as being associated with the Plaintiff. It was also submitted that the infringing pictures that have been reproduced by the Defendants on their Instagram accounts/handles also infringe the personality rights of the various celebrities whose images have been so used.
The court satisfied that the Plaintiff had met the requirements of establishing infringement of copyright, trade mark, passing off, restrained the Defendants from (i) infringing the Plaintiff’s copyright in its photographs/images as uploaded on platforms and unauthorized reproduction of the same on Defendants’ social media platforms, (ii) infringing the copyright in its artistic works/garments/dress style and its unauthorized reproduction, and (iii) infringing the Plaintiff’s registrations, in relation to services rendered online or in any manner, whatsoever. The Defendants were also directed to takedown their URLs on their respective online platforms.
MM Styles Private Limited v. Masaba Couture & Ors., CS COMM 893/2024, Order dt. October 9, 2024
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