Use of trademark by franchisee after expiry of Franchisee Agreement is passing off & TM infringement: Delhi High Court [Read Order]

In a recent judgment, the Delhi High Court granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in favor of content creators Universal, Warner Bros, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, and Disney in a suit filed against rogue websites disseminating their copyrighted content.

The Court ordered the ISPs, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Electronics and Information (MEITY) to block access to these websites.

“This court is convinced that a dynamic+ injunction as was granted in Universal City Studios LLC. & Ors. (supra) deserves to be granted, failing which, the pirated content will continue to be viewed, replicated, and communicated to the public, causing immense loss to the economic as also moral rights of the Plaintiffs,” reads the order. 

“This Court has from time to time evolved jurisprudence on protecting copyrighted content,” it further reads. 
Plaintiffs’ counsel informed the court that Delhi High Court’s orders to curb piracy were having vast implications, inasmuch as DNRs were locking/suspending domain names and customers were shifting to legitimate platforms.

[Read Order]