Indian Copyright Statistics, Ilayathalapathy Vijay’s Mersal Trade Marks, Schedule Tribes Commission Summons YouTube, RCB to Enter into Merchandise Business, Vodafone ties up with YuppTV to expand Live TV series and more is presented by the Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s Premier New Age IP Firm
COPYRIGHT QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Merchandising is not an additional element of creative content licensing, it is an integral part of it”- Kalyan
INDIAN COPYRIGHT STATISTICS
There has been an increase of 98% in the total number of copyright filings compared to the last week. A total of 299 applications were filed for copyright registration during the last week. While most of the applications were filed for literary works only four applications were filed for registering Sound Recordings.
| Sr. No | Types of work | Number of Applications previous week | Number of Applications this week | Percentage change |
| 1 | Literary Works | 118 | 234 | 98 |
| 2 | Musical works | 3 | 9 | 200 |
| 3 | Artistic works | 19 | 23 | 21 |
| 4 | Cinematograph Films | 1 | 11 | 1000 |
| 5 | Sound Recordings | 2 | 4 | 100 |
| 6 | Software | 8 | 18 | 125 |
| Total | 151 | 299 | 98 |
INDIAN COPYRIGHTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES
Madras High Court rejects trade mark infringement suit against Vijay’s Mersal
Madras High Court on Friday disposed a trade mark infringement suit filed by the production house Film Factori against Vijay’s upcoming Film Mersal and vacated the interim injunction granted against the release of the Film. Film Factori contended that the mark Mersal is similar to its titles Merrasalaitan and Naan Merrasalaitan. In response, the counsels for the makers of Mersal argued that the word Mersal is a generic word in Tamil over which none could claim exclusive rights. While rejecting the suit, Justice Anitha Sumanth held that “entire case of the applicant is based on the premise of probabilities and assumptions – assumed right to the title, assumed prejudice to reputation caused by the non-existent use of the film title and assumed deception by the respondents”. Earlier Madras High Court granted an interim injunction against the makers of Mersal restraining them from releasing the Film until October 3rd.
Schedule Tribes Commission summons YouTube
The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, has summoned YouTube for not removing videos on the Jarawa tribe, a small tribe of less than 500 in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. In last July, the Commission ordered YouTube to remove all videos that featured the tribe. “These videos are posted under tags like ‘Jarawa Development’ but show them naked or awkward and clumsy. They do not show them in good light. Posting these videos is akin to outraging their modesty without their knowledge,” told Raghav Chandra, NCST secretary.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW NEWS
Research Gate accused of Copyright Infringement
The research publishing giants Elsevier and the American Chemical Society have filed copyright infringement suit against the academic social networking site Research Gate. Research Gate allows users to share files on their personal pages including published papers. Recently, a coalition of publishers approached Research Gate about the issue of user infringement. However, Research Gate demanded that infringing materials can be taken down if appropriate take down notices are sent. However, the publishers felt that take down mechanism alone is not sufficient to tackle copyright infringement and instituted a copyright infringement suit before the German Court.
LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING UPDATES
RCB to enter into the merchandise business
Diageo-owned Bengaluru franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has decided to get into the retail merchandising of licensed products. It has signed on Black White Orange as a global licensing partner to launch a range of figurines, mobile covers, back-to-school product range in the following months and the brand Status Quo to launch an apparel range.
Viking Ventures acquires stake in Playboy
The Indian conglomerate Viking Ventures promoted by Indian actor Sachin Joshi has acquired majority stake in PB Lifestyle, which holds exclusive license and rights with respect to the brand Playboy in India.
Vodafone ties up with YuppTV to expand Live TV services
Vodafone India has partnered with the OTT player Yupp TV to strengthen its content streaming App Vodafone PLAY. With this partnership, Vodafone Play subscribers can access close to 250 Live TV channels, and movies in 14 national and regional languages offered by YuppTV.
BIP TIP OF THE WEEK
Authors/novelists and licensing bundle
Authors/novelists of literary works must refrain from assigning away all copyrights in their works to the publisher, and must license specific rights in specific means/modes independently. By doing so, Authors/ novelists can increase returns from exploitation of their works. Some possibilities for segregation of licenses and right transfers are print publication, e-book publication, mobile applications, film rights, syndication, serialization, e.t.c.
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.
