'Link-Documents Not Produced': Bombay High Court Denies Interim Relief To Shemaroo Entertainment In Copyright Infringement Suit Against T-Series

Justice Manish Pitale denied interim relief to Shemaroo in a copyright suit against T-Series with respect to audio visuals of songs in twenty-four films, observing that it failed to make a prima facie case it its favour.

“This Court is also not inclined to accept the contention raised on behalf of the plaintiff that being a charter High Court, the absence of the link documents in respect of the said 9 suit films may be ignored. While exercising discretion, this Court cannot ignore the said deficiency”, the court held.

The court observed that Shemaroo did not produce documents showing the link between original owners/producers and the entities that assigned the rights to Shemaroo, in respect of nine of the films in the suit. For the remaining 15 films, the court held that Shemaroo failed to make out a prima facie that T-Series did not have the right to audio visuals of the songs.

Shemaroo is seeking a direction against Super Cassettes (trade name T-Series) restraining it from alleged illegal publication of audio-visuals of songs of twenty-four films on various YouTube channels without required permission.

Shemaroo has claimed absolute copyright in the films on the basis of agreements executed in its favour by various entities. It has claimed that the original owners and producers, between April 2004 and April 2016, assigned all rights, including rights on the audio-visuals of the songs in the films. T-series is claiming rights in the audio visuals of the songs in the films. T-Series has claimed that the original owners assigned those rights to it between 1985 and 1990.

According to Shemaroo, on May 21, 2014, it gave a temporary non-exclusive license to B4U Broadband (India) Pvt Ltd to exploit some of the contents of the films for the period of May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015. However, it exploited the works even after that, Shemaroo claimed.

On January 18, 2016, Shemaroo sent a cease-and-desist notice to B4U. In its response, B4U claimed that it acquired satellite broadcasting rights in the songs of the film ‘Amba’ under third party license agreement. In response to another notice from Shemaroo, B4U claimed that it has acquired rights to telecast songs of the suit films through various third parties, including T-Series, claiming to be the owners of the songs.

On March 21, 2017 T-Series sent a communication to Shemaroo stating that the owners/producers of the suit films have executed assignment agreements in its favour and thus it has all rights in the audio-visuals of the songs contained in the films.

Shemaroo filed the present suit along with the application for interim reliefs. According to Shemaroo, T-Series only has the rights on audio of the songs while T-Series is claiming rights on both audio and visuals of the songs.

Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam for T-Series submitted that Shemaroo has not produced ‘link documents’ in respect of nine films of the suit films.

Senior Advocate Sharan Jagtiani submitted that Shemaroo has the link documents but they were not produced as they are quite voluminous. They can be produced in case of urgency, he said. He also argued that Bombay HC, being a Charter High Court, has wider powers in equity while considering the question of interim injunction, and its powers are not limited by Order XI of the CPC, as applicable to Commercial Courts. Order XI of the CPC, as applicable to Commercial Courts, provides that the plaintiff shall attach copies of all documents in its power, possession, control or custody, pertaining to the suit along with the plaint.

The court noted that Shemaroo only placed copies of the agreements in its favour executed by the alleged last assignee. The court said that the plaintiff is expected to file all relevant documents with the plaint, which indicate the source of assertion of rights by the plaintiff. The Court rejected Shemaroo’s contention that being a charter High Court, it can ignore the absence of the link documents in respect of the nine films.

“In the absence of link documents, the plaintiff is not justified in calling upon this Court to exercise its discretion for granting temporary injunction in its favour, on the basis that exclusive copyrights are held in the said 9 suit films”, the court held.

For the remaining 15 films, the court noted that the original owners/producers have not objected to T-Series’ usage of the audio-visuals of the songs of the suit films. This indicates that T-Series has been exploiting audio-visuals of the songs openly and continuously on the basis of the assignment deeds with the original producers, the court opined.

Referring to some of the terms in the deed assigning rights of the film ‘Amba’ to T-Series, the court opined that at this stage, it cannot be said that the rights of T-Series are only restricted to audio of the songs.

The court held that since Shemaroo did not make out a prima facie case that T-Series only had rights to the songs’ audio, interim relief cannot be granted to it on the basis of the assignment deeds in its favour. This is because the previous owners, having already assigned the rights to T-Series, did not hold those rights anymore and thus could not have subsequently assigned them to Shemaroo, the court reasoned.

“the emphasis placed on behalf of the plaintiff on the assignment deeds executed in its favour, cannot lead to a case being made out for grant of temporary injunction, simply for the reason that the assignors of the plaintiff could not have assigned a title better than what they were themselves holding…in the backdrop of the plaintiff having failed to make out a strong prima facie case as regards interpretation of the assignment deeds executed by the original producers in favour of defendant No.1 (T-Series), it cannot press for interim injunction only on the basis of the assignment deeds executed in its favour”, the court held.

Senior Advocates Sharan Jagtiani and Hiren Kamod alongwith Advocates Mahesh A. Mahadgut, Prem Khullar, Poonam Teddu, Siddharth Joshi and Kaivalya Shetye represented Shemaroo

Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam, alongwith Advocates Harsh Kaushik, Abhilisha Nautiyal, Zahra Padamsee and Kyle Curry represented T-Series

Advocates Amit Jamsandekar and Nayan Mahar represented B4U Entertainment

Case no. – Commercial IP Suit No. 297 of 2022

Case Title – Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd. v. Super Cassettes Industries Pvt. Ltd. & Ors.