Delhi High Court Directs Whatsapp To Take Down Groups Illegally Circulating E-Newspapers Owned By Dainik Bhaskar Corp. Ltd.

The Delhi High Court has directed Whatsapp to take down or block the WhatsApp groups unauthorisedly and illegally circulating the e-newspaper owned by Dainik Bhaskar Corp. Ltd.

Justice Sanjeev Narula was of the view that Dainik Bhaskar Corp. Ltd., the plaintiff had made out a prima facie case and that an irreparable loss would be caused to it in case an ex-parte order of injunction is not granted against those illegally circulating and distributing the it's e-newspaper.

The Dainik Bhaskar Corp. Ltd. is the registered owner the trademarks "Dainik Bhaskar", "Divya Bhaskar", "Divya Marathi" and "Bhaskar Group".

The Defendant No. 1 in the suit was WhatsApp LLC while Defendants No. 3 to 88 were persons who had formed whatsapp groups and were circulating e-newspapers illegally. The suit was therefore filed seeking ex-parte injunction restraining the Defendants from infringing or enabling the infringement of plaintiff's copyrights and trademarks.

It was the Plaintiff's case that it began circulating e-newspapers through its websites "epaper.bhaskar.com" and "epaper.diyyabhaskar.com" on a subscription based model. Apart from the said websites, the e-newspapers and e-magazines were also accessed through its mobile phone application Dainik Bhaskar.

It was therefore submitted that there might be many other whatsapp groups where the e-newspapers were unauthorisedly and illegally shared, however, the Plaintiff was unaware of the same.

It was contended that Plaintiff was the owner of the copyright in 'literary works' qua the e-newspaper, along with news articles and the content published on its websites and mobile application, and the same could not be unauthorisedly circulated.

"…. till the next date of hearing, Defendant No. 1 is directed to take down/ block the WhatsApp groups identified under paragraph 7 of the present application – which are unauthorisedly and illegally circulating the Plaintiff's e-newspaper," the Court directed.

The matter will now be heard by the roster bench on May 2, 2022.

Title: DB CORP LTD v. WHATSAPP LLC & ORS.

Click Here To Read Order