By: Alo Dutt LLM II Sem (478)

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.

 1997- Plaintiff disclosed this concept to his wife and K. Chandrashekhar; got his concept registered and a certificate was issued 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 production house called Teamwork Films Pvt. Ltd. 1998 (May, June)- In second meeting plaintiff team described the concept of SWAYAMVAR. 2000- Plaintiff also approached Doordarshan about real life reality TV show revolving around marriages. 2000, 28th Oct.- Plaintiff handed over to defendant a letter which contained 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

 Plaintiff contended that the subsequent reproduction of the same in the format of proposed TV show by the defendant titled Subh Vivah amounts to infringement of Plaintiffs copyright, which inflicted huge loss and damaged the commercial potential of the plaintiff. Defendant contended thati. Concept of SWAYAMVAR was in public domain. ii. Whatever narrated to them was not confidential, and the draft given to them was vague and rough. iii. No copyright exists in subject matter or theme of historical or mythological belief. iv. There were other shows as well prior to 1996 outside India, for Ex: Mr. & Mrs., Love at first Sight and Blind date.

 Court said that when the idea is developed and even if there are similarities, substantial aspect of the mode of expression adopted in the copyright work and the defendant work is literal imitation to the copyright work with some variations, it would amount to violation of the Copyright. It was also said that, when the concept note as well as PowerPoint presentation was admitted to have been received by the defendant it cannot be said that the defendant were under no obligation to maintain confidentiality. Therefore defendant cannot be permitted to launch its proposed TV program SUBH VIVAH if the same is based on the concept of SWAYAMVAR conceived by the plaintiff. No injunction in perpetuity was granted to the plaintiff.