BREAKING: Delhi High Court passes omnibus order restraining infringement of Amitabh Bachchan personality rights

The Delhi High Court on Friday passed an interim order restraining persons at large from infringing the personality and publicity rights of veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan [Amitabh Bachchan v. Rajat Nagi & Ors]..Justice Navin Chawla stated in his order,"It cannot seriously be disputed that the plaintiff is a well-known personality and is also represented in various advertisements. The plaintiff is aggrieved by the defendants using his celebrity status to promote their own goods and services without his permission or authorization. Having considered the plaint, I am of the opinion that a prima facie case is made out and balance of convenience also lies in his favour."The judge also noted that Bachchan is likely to suffer irreparable loss and harm, and that some of the activities may even bring him disrepute, if the order is not passed..The Court also issued directions to the authorities and telecom service providers on the prayers made in the suit..The suit was filed by Anand and Naik. Senior Advocate Harish Salve, along with Advocates Ameet Naik, Pravin Anand and Madhu Gadodia appeared for Bachchan..Salve began his arguments by showing the Court what prompted the veteran Bollywood actor to file the suit."All India sim card WhatsApp lucky draw. Lucky draw holder name -- Amitabh Bachchan and Mukesh Ambani," he told the Court, citing one of the advertisements that were using Bachchan's name. He added that complaints were made that such lottery advertisement were scams.After citing another example, the Senior Advocate said,"I am just giving a flavour of what is going on. Someone is making t-shirts and started putting his face on them. Someone is selling his poster. Someone has gone and registered a domain name, amitabhbachchan.com. This is why we have come...".Ameet Naik, Joint Managing Partner of Anand and Naik stated “This landmark verdict will injuct any person from using the name, image, voice and other personality attributes of Mr. Bachchan without his consent and authorization by any means, physical or digital. The Indian jurisprudence will finally develop and evolve on personality rights and Mr. Amitabh Bachchan is the right personality to set this trend.He further said “We are pleased that the Delhi High Court has presented this landmark verdict and am grateful to Mr. Salve and Mr. Praveen Anand for this trend setting order which will help talent in our country to protect their personality rights”..Bachchan approached the High Court seeking an omnibus order protecting his name, image, voice or any of his characteristics without his consent..The suit stated that Bachchan’s name, image and voice were being used by mobile application developers to conduct lotteries by illegally associating with Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), a show hosted by the veteran actor.He has also sought a restraining order against book publishers, T-shirt vendors and various other businesses.Bachchan has stated that only he has control over the commercial utilisation of his personality, name, voice, image, likeness and other characteristics that are uniquely identifiable and associated with him, and no one can do the same without his consent or express authorisation..It has been argued that over many years, Bachchann has built a brand of himself, wherein the public associates both ‘trust’ and ‘quality’ with him and every brand that he endorses.However, defendants are operating websites and mobile apps by misappropriating the Bachchan’s photographs and/or other characteristics, to create popularity amongst the public and to entice members of the public to download such mobile apps, the Court was told.The suit also said that defendant no 2 (one Rana Pratap) has been found circulating messages through WhatsApp in which messages and photographs of the Bollywood actor are illegally affixed along with an infringing text about KBC Lotteries. Another example of such infringement was,“The Defendant No.3 is a publisher, Manoj Publications, which has been found commercially dealing in a General Knowledge quiz book on various e-commerce platforms for aspirants who wish to participate in the television quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (a popular TV show hosted by the Plaintiff). The Defendant No.4 is an entity M/s Swag Shirts, which has been found dealing in T-shirts through its website https://www.swagshirts99.com/, which prominently bear photographs of the Plaintiff on clothing items.”The plea also cited the example of a Gwalior-based poster seller who had been found dealing with wall posters bearing the Bachchan’s photographs and likeness..Bachchan thus sought an omnibus order in the form of a John Doe order against such persons and others who are violating or infringing his image rights.He also sought an interim injunction restraining four of the defendants from transferring, alienating or creating any third party rights in respect of the domain names amitabhbachchan.com and amitabhbachchan.in.Also prayed for is a direction to the Department of Telecommunications and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to require internet service providers to take down a list of links and websites that unlawfully infringe upon Bachchan's personality and publicity rights.Finally, the veteran actor has asked for an order directing telecom service providers to block access to all phone numbers used by the defendants to circulate messages on messaging apps such as WhatsApp which amount to infringement of his rights..[Read Order]