Delhi High Court grants Mirchi interim relief in copyright suit over Kareena Kapoor talk show

The Delhi High Court recently granted interim relief to radio broadcaster Mirchi in a copyright suit filed by it against entertainment and lifestyle content platform, MissMalini over the upload of clips concerning the 'What Women Want’ talk show hosted by Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan [Entertainment Network India Limited v. Miss Malini Entertainment Pvt Ltd And Others]..Entertainment Network India Limited (which owns Mirchi FM) has alleged that Miss Malini Entertainment Private Limited (MEPL) violated an agreement between them when the latter uploaded clips from the talk show on YouTube and Instagram after obscuring Mirchi's logos and adding the MissMalini logo instead. Mirchi has asserted that it is the exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights associated with the show. It further told the Court that MEPL was engaged by Mirchi for the promotion of the show. Mirchi added that there was an understanding between the two parties that MEPL would show Mirchi a preview of the content to be posted on MissMalini's platforms before it was uploaded. However, Mirchi claims that this was not done and that MEPL posted video clips of the talk show without Mirchi's approval. In these clips, MEPL is alleged to have affixed its own logo, 'MissMalini,' and obscured the ‘Mirchi’ logo. MEPL also added ‘MissMalini’ Productions’ at the credit of the video, Mirchi contended..After hearing preliminary arguments, Justice Mini Pushkarna on December 20 granted ex parte interim injunction in favour of Mirchi and ordered MissMalini to take down videoclips mentioned by Mirchi from YouTube and Instagram. The Court ordered that this be done within 48 hours. The clips in question has since been taken down. .Further, till the next date of hearing (May 13), the Court restrained MEPL from using Mirchi’s copyrighted material on any platform, social media or multi-media..Mirchi had earlier sent a cease and desist notice and initiated a copyright strike on the videos in question on YouTube. Since some videoclips remained online, Mirchi moved the Delhi High Court for relief..Senior Advocate Abhishek Malhotra with Advocates Kartikay Dutta, Anukriti Trivedi and Raghavi Shukla appeared for Mirchi.Advocates Vedansh Anand and Sachin Saraswat appeared for the Central government.Advocates Aditya Gupta and Asavari Jain appeared for Google.Central government counsel Nidhi Raman with Advocate Akash Mishra appeared for the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications..[Read order]