8/12/2019 Anil Gupta vs. Kunal Das Gupta

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By:Alo DuttLLM II Sem478)

8/12/2019 Anil Gupta vs. Kunal Das Gupta

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Plaintiff i.e., Anil Gupta (Media Consultant) set up a

company in the year 1995 called A to Z Entertainment

Pvt. Ltd., later renamed as Taal India Communications

Pvt. Ltd.

Defendant: Kunal Das Gupta ( CEO of SONY

entertainment)

1996- Plaintiff conceived the idea of producing a reality

show containing the process of match making and

named the concept- SWAYAMVAR.

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1997- Plaintiff disclosed this concept to his wife and K.Chandrashekhar; got his concept registered and a certificate wasissued in the favour of Plaintiff on 17th Dec 1997 (u/s 48 of

Copyright Act) 1997-Disclosed this concept to one Sanjay Roy and Kunal Das

(defendant) in utmost confidentiality to involve his productionhouse called TeamworkFilms Pvt. Ltd.

1998 (May, June)- In second meeting plaintiff team described theconcept of SWAYAMVAR.

2000- Plaintiff also approached Doordarshan about real life realityTV show revolving around marriages.

2000, 28thOct.- Plaintiff handed over to defendant a letter whichcontained proposal for 5 Programmes including SWAYAMVAR.In the meeting defendant asked for the detailed presentation at the

earliest. 2000, 10th Nov.- Plaintiff gave a PowerPoint presentation to the

large team of the executive of the defendant.

2001, 18th July- Plaintiff saw an article in the Financial Express,titled- CAMERA, LIGHTS, SHEHNAI!... SONY TV to play

MATCHMAKER 2001, Aug- Plaintiff came to know that defendant is going to

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Plaintiff contended that the subsequent reproduction of thesame in the format of proposed TV show by the defendanttitled Subh Vivah amounts to infringement of Plaintiffscopyright, which inflicted huge loss and damaged the

commercial potential of the plaintiff. Defendant contended that-

i. Concept of SWAYAMVARwas in public domain.

ii. Whatever narrated to them was not confidential, and thedraft given to them was vague and rough.

iii. No copyright exists in subject matter or theme of historicalor mythological belief.

iv. There were other shows as well prior to 1996 outside India,for Ex: Mr. & Mrs.,Loveat first Sightand Blinddate.

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Court said that when the idea is developed and even if thereare similarities, substantial aspect of the mode of expressionadopted in the copyright work and the defendant work is literalimitation to the copyright work with some variations, it wouldamount to violation of the Copyright.

It was also said that, when the concept note as well asPowerPoint presentation was admitted to have been receivedby the defendant it cannot be said that the defendant wereunder no obligation to maintain confidentiality.

Therefore defendant cannot be permitted to launch itsproposed TV program SUBHVIVAHif the same is based onthe concept of SWAYAMVARconceived by the plaintiff.

No injunction in perpetuity was granted to the plaintiff.