Delhi High Court remarks that functioning of Meta is worse than an Indian government department
The Bench, headed by the Acting Chief Justice of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court, in a plea filed by TV Today, opined that the functioning of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram is worse than a government department. The plea has been filed against the blocking of the Instagram page of TV Today’s Harper’s Bazaar India. Meta was further asked by the Bench to ‘put its house in order.’
Rajnikanth’s ‘Coolie’ team received a copyright notice from Ilaiyaraaja
Ilaiyaraaja has issued copyright notice to the ‘Coolie’ makers for using his music without permission and has sought for removal of the music and has also accused the Director, Lokesh Kanagaraj of repeated copyright infringement. The music of the movie ‘Coolie’ has been composed by Anirudh and Ilaiyaraaja’s song ‘Va va pakkam va’ from ‘Thangamagan’ has been recreated.
IPRS withdraws insolvency plea against Zee Entertainment
The Indian Performing Rights Society has withdrawn its insolvency plea, filed against Zee Entertainment Enterprises. As per Zee’s regulatory filings, the dispute amounting to INR 200 crore is settled between the parties. The terms of the settlement are yet to be disclosed in the public domain.
Delhi High Court grants interim injunction in favour of Bulgari
In a copyright and trade mark infringement suit filed by Bulgari against a designer jewellery store, the Delhi High Court has passed an Order of interim injunction in favour of Bulgari.
The Defendant has substantially replicated the idea, form, manner of depiction, arrangement, pattern, ornamentation, expression, etc. of the elements of the original artistic work of Bulgari, viz., Serpenti Ocean Treasure Necklace.
The Order of the Court dated April 29, 2024 can be accessed here.
Delhi High Court issues summons in a trade mark infringement suit filed by Tesla Inc.
The Delhi High Court has issued summons in a trade mark infringement suit filed by Tesla Inc. against Tesla Power India Private Limited and its US counterpart. The Defendants were using the mark TESLA as part of their corporate name and deals in ‘lead acid batteries’ supplied for automobiles, inverters, UPS and stated to have no plans to manufacture electric vehicles, like the Plaintiff. The Defendants have bee granted 3 weeks to file their Reply to the Plaintiff’s injunction application.
The Order of the Court dated May 02, 2024 can be accessed here.
Delhi High Court rules VIAGRA is the exclusive trade mark of Pfizer
The Delhi High Court held that the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer owns the trade mark VIAGRA exclusively and awarded permanent injunction in Pfizer’s favour against Renovision Exports Private Limited.
The Defendant was using the mark VIGOURA for products being ‘nervine tonic for men’ and ‘homeopathic medicine invented in Germany’. The Hon’ble Court has also awarded nominal costs of INR 3 lakhs to Pfizer.
The Judgement of the Court dated May 02, 2024 can be accessed here.
Supreme Court dismisses PhonePe’s plea against DigiPe
In a trade mark dispute, the Supreme Court has dismissed the plea filed by PhonePe against DigiPe for using the trade mark ‘Pe’ as a suffix for the reason that other companies such as BharatPe are already using the suffix ‘Pe.’ The Court further noted that the original suit between PhonePe and DigiPe is pending before the Madras High Court and is ready for trial and the same should commence.
US news publishers sue Microsoft, Open AI
A suit for copyright infringement has been filed by the US news publishers against Microsoft and Open AI, maker of ChatGPT for training their generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models using the publishers’ proprietary material without permission and/or payment.
In the past, the New York Times too had filed a suit against Microsoft and Open AI for copyright infringement alleging that the companies had trained their chatbots using copyrighted material.
