Bachchan petitioned the High Court for an omnibus order to safeguard his name, image, voice, or any of his qualities that were used without his authorization...
Digital Desk: On Friday, the Delhi High Court granted an interim injunction preventing the public from infringing the personality and publicity rights of famous Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan.
According to Justice Navin Chawla, it is difficult to refute that the plaintiff is a well-known celebrity who appears in several advertisements. The plaintiff is angry because the defendants are using his notoriety to sell their products and services without his consent or licence.
After considering the plaint, the Court determined that a prima facie case had been made and that the balance of convenience was likewise in favour of the plaintiff.
According to the judge, if the injunction is not granted, Mr Bachchan would suffer irreparable loss and suffering, and some of his actions may even bring him shame.
Bachchan requested an omnibus order from the High Court to safeguard his name, image, voice, or any of his qualities that were utilised without his permission.
According to the complaint, mobile application developers were unlawfully associating with Bachchan's programme, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), by exploiting his name, appearance, and voice to run lotteries.
Injunctions have also been sought against book publishers, T-shirt retailers, and other businesses.
Bachchan has declared that he alone has ownership over the commercial exploitation of his personality, name, voice, image, likeness, and other uniquely recognisable and linked with him and that no one else can do so without his approval or express licence.
It has been suggested that Bachchann has developed a brand for himself over a long period of time, with the public associating 'trust' and 'quality' with him and every company he promotes.
The Court was told, however, that defendants are running websites and mobile applications by misappropriating Bachchan's pictures and/or other attributes in order to obtain public notoriety and lure members of the public to download such mobile apps.
The claim further said that defendant number two (Rana Pratap) was caught spreading messages on WhatsApp containing unlawfully affixed messages and images of the Bollywood star, as well as an infringement text concerning KBC Lotteries.
The petition also highlighted the example of a poster salesman in Gwalior who was discovered trading in wall posters with images and likenesses of Bachchan.
He also asked for an injunction to prevent four of the defendants from transferring, alienating, or establishing third-party interests in the domain names amitabhbachchan.com and amitabhbachchan.in.
A direction is also asked to the Department of Telecommunications and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, forcing internet service providers to delete a list of links and websites that violate Bachchan's personality and publicity rights.
Furthermore, the veteran actor has asked for a court order requiring telecom service providers to prohibit access to all phone numbers used by the defendants to distribute messages on messaging applications such as WhatsApp, which amounts to intellectual property infringement.
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