Copyright Act, 1957 – Interplay between Section 60 and its proviso on suit for declaration that the allegations of copyright infringement by the defendant were groundless.
Judgment dated 13.12.2023 in A.O.No.438 of 2023 of Manya Vejju Vs. Sapna Bhog
The respondent-plaintiff is the author of self-publishing works under her own name “Sapna Bhog” on Amazon Kindle since 2019 and are featured as best seller lists of Amazon. The plaintiff, amongst many titles, created and written “The Bond of Brothers”.
The appellant-defendant is also an author and published works.
The defendant had issued various insinuation of plagiarism against the plaintiff in respect of yet un-written and unreleased titles of the plaintiff and mired the reputation of the plaintiff in the esteem of “Romance Genre” readers. It has adversely affected the sale of “The Bond of Brothers” series.
Thus, according to the plaintiff, the reckless allegations of copyright infringement, generated hate in the minds of the readers.
Legal notice dated 8.8.2022 was given to the defendant to cease and desist from making such wild allegations.
The plaintiff filed suit for declaration of threat of copyright infringement action was groundless and to restrain the defendant from pursuing such mala fide threat. Temporary injunction was also sought to restrain the defendant from extracting, excerpting, mutilating any part of the plaintiff’s literary works and publishing them.
The trial Court held that the suit is maintainable even after initiating criminal action for copyright infringement by the defendant, the storylines of books prima facie were different, there were triable issues and if the defendant is not restrained, the plaintiff would suffer irreparable loss.
Subsequent to the impugned order, the defendant filed the suit for infringement of copyright.
If the conditions of proviso are satisfied, the action cannot be termed as groundless and therefore, the main part of Section 60 providing a remedy in case of groundless threat ceases to operate.
