Recently, Neela Film Productions Private Limited, a renowned production house, filed a suit for permanent injunction restraining, inter alia, infringement of copyright and trade mark, misappropriation of publicity rights, unfair competition, passing off, tarnishment and dilution, against John Doe parties, including various websites, e-commerce platforms, and YouTube channels.
The plaintiff has produced several fiction and non-fiction shows since the year 1998, which have been broadcasted over various popular television channels, including the famed show ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chasmah’. The plaintiff has owned exclusive rights to all concept, format and the intellectual property vesting in the aforesaid show, by virtue of which, the plaintiff has obtained trade mark registrations for various trade marks in relation to the show, as well as copyright registrations for the various characters and animations featured in the show.
The plaintiff has alleged the defendants of activities such as selling infringing merchandise on e-commerce platforms, registering the domain name https://taarakmehtakaooltahchashmah.com/ to advance commercial gains by attracting traffic to their website, hosting content that features the show’s characters and imagery, and creating AI-generated images (deepfakes) of the show's characters, which dilute and tarnish the value of the plaintiff’s intellectual property, especially when associated with unsavoury sexually explicit content.
The court, in consideration of the merits of the case, stated that the defendants are not authorized to provide services utilizing the intellectual property of the plaintiff in the aforesaid show, and that the act of, inter alia, posting, streaming, broadcasting, providing access to communicating to the public, publishing content, goods or services featuring the intellectual property of the plaintiff amounts to infringement of the exclusive rights vested with the plaintiff. The court, additionally, held that the plaintiff will be exposed to irreparable financial and reputational loss and injury, in case the defendants are not restrained from carrying out the aforementioned activities, and that the illegal and infringing contents are easily and freely available and accessible across India, which makes it almost impossible for the plaintiff to take actions against such websites in various jurisdictions.
Accordingly, the court, while issuing notice to the defendants, passed an ex parte ad-interim injunction in favour of the plaintiff, and restrained the defendants from, inter alia, carrying out the aforementioned activities.
Neela Film Productions Private Limited vs. TaarakMehtaKaOoltahChashmah.com & Ors. [CS (COMM) 690/2024, order dt. August 14, 2024]
Comments