Recently, the Bombay High Court refused the stay the release of the Hindi movie ‘Jersey’ in a suit alleging copyright infringement.
The suit was filed by a scriptwriter who claimed that the Hindi movie is plagiarised from his registered script ‘The Wall’. The plaintiff also claimed to have issued a legal notice to the defendants in which he sought compensation through the revenue generated by the Telugu movie on which the Hindi movie was based.
The defendants, on the other hand, argued that they had issued a public notice inviting objections at the time it had applied for the remake rights of the Telegu movie. The defendants further asserted that the Telugu film had already released back in 2019 and since then has been aired on various channels and OTT platforms. It was also stated that the trailer and publicity of the Hindi movie has been going on since 2019 and that the present suit suffers from inordinate delay.
The court sided with the defendant to state that such delay would be fatal in this case as the Telegu movie was already in public domain and the defendant had sought objections from the public. Accordingly, the court refused to grant interim relief this close to the release date.
COMIP SUIT(L) NO. 10429 of 2022, Order dt. April 13, 2022