Venus moves Delhi High Court against Pen Pvt. Limited for a title infringement case over “Khiladi”
Venus Worldwide Entertainment Private Limited has moved the Delhi High Court against Pen Private Limited seeking a permanent injunction restraining infringement of its registered “KHILADI” trademarks being aggrieved with the forthcoming release of a film titled ‘KHILADI’ by the defendants. The said film is slated to be released in Cinemas on the 11th of February, 2022. The matter was listed on 10th February, 2022 where the Plaintiff after some arguments, on instructions, stated that it is not pressing for an ex-parte order qua the theatrical release. The Plaintiff however submitted that the movie would at a later date, also be released on Digital/ OTT platforms and across other technological media viz. DVD/ VCD and that interim orders be passed qua such imminent launch. The certification of Defendant’s movie is for title “KHILADI”. However, in the posters, underneath the said title – a slogan/ tagline “Play Smart” also appears. The defendant sought time to take instructions on whether the representation of the tagline appearing along with the title can be changed for the release across other platforms, so as to address the Plaintiff’s concern. The matter is next listed on 17th February, 2022.
Read order here.
No stay on MediaOne bar, Kerala High Court defers verdict
After expiry of the 10 year broadcasting license of MediaOne, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry suspended broadcast of MediaOne on 31st January.
The channel moved the Kerala High Court which stayed the decision and after reviewing the files provided by the Channel, it upheld the Centre’s suspension which was later challenged before a Division Bench. The channel is off air since Tuesday.
The suspension of the channel license was argued as a serious national security concern, however, Dave who appeared for the Channel opposed the same by saying that under the camouflage of national security, the ministry abruptly banned the broadcasting of a channel which has been on the air for more than a decade. He also asked why the channel was allowed to function for so many years if it posed such a threat.
The Division Bench deferred the verdict to another day; the exact date was not given.
Questioning the bar on the channel, pleas are also filed by the editor Pramod Raman and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists.
ShareChat and Mx Media announce a strategic merger of Moj and MX TakaTak
After the merger of Mx TakaTak and Moj, the combined platform will have 100 million creators, over 300 million Monthly Active Users, and nearly 250 billion monthly video views.
MX TakaTak will continue to function as a separate platform for now, but the two platforms’ creator base, content supply and recommendation algorithms will be integrated.
60 YouTube channels blocked for circulating fake news
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha that it had blocked 60 Pakistan-backed YouTube Channels including their social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram which were involved in circulating fake news against the Indian government and were backed by Pakistan.
Encryption of channels may be made mandatory
The move will help stop the illegal broadcast of channels which don’t have the licenses for DD freedish. The government wants to ensure that only those channels who buy slots on freedish are the ones who can broadcast.
MIB is likely to amend channel uplinking and downlinking rules. To prevent unauthorized receipt of signals, the proposed guidelines will mention that while the existing guideline allows a company to apply either in C or KU band, under the new proposal, uplinking can be done in the frequency band specified by the applicant. Uplinking in a band other than the C band has to be in encrypted mode.
IPRS partners with Roposo for publishing and performing rights
The partnership will benefit the IPRS members with publishing royalties for content on Roposo and enable them to leverage the platform’s scale of millions of users for visibility.
Through this association, the members of IPRS would not only be able to potentially get their music out to millions of users, but also there would be royalties for the songwriters and composers behind the music represented by IPRS.
Enabling and futuristic regulatory framework introduced to harness the full potential of NFTs
Esya Centre in association with the Internet and Mobile Association of India in its report lays out suggestions for policymakers, entrepreneurs, developers and creators to consider to help promote a healthy growth of the industry. The report also addresses the issues of copyright and IPR associated with NFT that both creators and dealers of NFT need to be aware of before engaging with NFT assets
Link to the report – click here
