Delhi High Court protects personality rights of actor Vivek Oberoi

The Delhi High Court has passed an order protecting the personality rights of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi [Vivek Anand Oberoi vs Collector Bazar & Ors.].

By way of the order passed on February 5, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela banned the commercial use of Oberoi's name, voice, image, likeness or any other aspects of his persona for commercial gain without his approval.

The Court said that elements of his personality cannot be used without consent through any technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), machine learning, deepfakes and face morphing.

The order was passed in a suit filed by Oberoi seeking injunction against certain websites and entities violating his personality rights by impersonating him, selling unauthorised merchandise, creating derogatory AI-generated content and deepfakes to create his “distasteful” images.

In the plaint, Oberoi sought an omnibus order against all such persons found to be infringing his rights. He stated that due to such activities, he was suffering loss of goodwill, business and reputation.

He also sought protection of the moral rights in his performances in films under the Copyright Act. Further, he stated that his name, Vivek Oberoi, is protectable as a trademark. 

After considering the case, the Court ruled that Oberoi is a renowned actor and philanthropist and has exclusive rights over his personality attributes like image, voice and name.

It added that his reputation establishes goodwill and a strong prima facie case exists, with the balance of convenience favouring him, as denial of the injunction would cause irreparable reputational harm.

Therefore, it passed the order protecting his personality rights.

Advocates Sana Raees Khan, Pranay Chitale, Udayvir Rana, Aditya Dutta and Dhawesh Pahuja appeared for Vivek Oberoi.

[Read Order]