“Fake Copyright organization busted, and 4 arrested for duping over 100 job aspirants, Peps Industries has filed almost three dozen IP infringement cases against competitors, YouTube MP3 agrees to shut down, IFTDA cancels Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s license and more” brought to you by the entertainment law team of BananaIP
COPYRIGHT THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
“Promotion and Popularity through Piracy is now main stream. May be, it is time for content owners to have a piracy plan for a part of their content to gain visibility and popularity before capitalizing on the rest.” – Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, Renowned IP Attorney, Professor and Author.
INDIAN COPYRIGHTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES
Fake Copyright organization busted; 4 arrested for duping over 100 job aspirants
The Hyderabad police arrested four persons, who had started a fake copyright monitoring organization and allegedly duped over 100 job aspirants. According to the police, the accused started their own fake organization and promised to appoint several job aspirants to serve copyright notices on behalf of various business houses. “In February this year, they set up the Vigilance and Enforcement for Indian Copyrights, claiming that they would raid those establishments, which are found selling or manufacturing duplicate products and inform the copyright authorities. While initially starting off as a private establishment, they soon began claiming that they were a government department” the police release said.
Peps Industries has filed almost three dozen IP infringement cases against competitors
Mr. K Madhavan, Managing Director, Peps Industries on Thursday stated that Peps has filed almost three dozen intellectual property infringement cases against its competitors. “The biggest issue is competitors copying. We cover all our properties under Intellectual Property Acts (IPA.) We are the only mattress company which has about 92 trade mark registrations and over 15 patents in our hand. But despite that, we see rampant copying. We have filed about three dozen cases against this.”- he said during an interview.
PEPS Industries is a leading spring mattress manufacturing company, which holds several IP registrations, and enforces them aggressively.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW NEWS
YouTube MP3 agrees to shut down
The YouTube ripping site YouTube-mp3 has agreed to shut down its operations as part of settling the dispute with the Recording Industry Association of America. The site was a popular way of extracting audio from audio visual content uploaded to YouTube. The Recording Industry Association of America sued the developers of the site in Germany and California for copyright infringement. Ars Technica reported that both parties have reached a settlement. RIAA has agreed to withdraw the suits and the developers of the site have agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in damages and close down the website.
LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING UPDATES
Star wins the bid to IPL
Star India has recently acquired the global media rights to the Indian Premier League, which happens to be the only cricket property not in its portfolio. Star India acquired the rights for Rs 16,347.5 crores, which amounts to 54.5 crore per match.
IFTDA cancels Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s license
Following the conviction of the Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case, the Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA) has canceled his license with the association. Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) followed suit, canceling his work permit. Sources state that Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPAA) is also contemplating doing the same.
Micromax and Eros partner to launch tablet
Indian electronics company Micromax Informatics has recently launched a tablet Canvas Plex with Eros Now with an 8-inch HD Screen coupled with 3GB RAM and 32 GB ROM. The tablet will be preloaded with a one-year premium subscription to Eros Now’s library of Bollywood, regional films, music videos, TV shows etc.
BIP TIP OF the week
Friendly Letters to Enlighten and Stop Infringers
Simple, easy to understand, friendly letters informing an ignorant infringer about IP infringement, which includes a request to stop infringement have worked very well for several BIP’s clients in stopping/controlling infringement/piracy. As a first step, companies may consider identifying appropriate infringers and writing friendly letters to stop infringement, instead of legal notices, which are normally worded as threats.
Author: BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys
Senior Partner, the entertainment law attorneys at BIP are among the well-known lawyers in the field. They work with clients such as Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Ananda Audio, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh, and Arka Media (Producer of Bahu Bali). BIP’s entertainment law team helps clients protect, manage and effectively license and merchandize their creative works such as films, music, brands and other content, to maximize financial returns.
The weekly copyright and entertainment law news initiative is a part of their pro bono work, and is aimed at spreading entertainment law awareness. You are free to share the news with appropriate attribution and backlink to the source.
If you have any questions, you may write to BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys – contact@bananaip.com.
