Movie Titles and Intellectual Property Rights

For Doordarshan, Lockdown has certainly extended an unprecedented opportunity to revive the good old golden days and to increase TRP (Television Ratings Point) to great heights! On public demand, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Shaktimaan serials are being telecast by Doordarshan.

I have been watching the all time epic series "CID" these days and while watching one of the episodes discussed about patenting of a device which triggered a series of thoughts concerning IP rights into different aspects of movies, TV serials, music videos etc. However, what caught my attention was the creative and thoughtful titles of the episodes such "Pracheen Fingerprints"..What's in a name? Shakespeare had written. But here everything is in a name..from brand name, movie titles, book titles to name of a person!

A movie title can be protected by way of registration with associations such as the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA), the Association of Motion Pictures and Television Program Producers (AMPTTP) and the Film and Television Producers' Guild of India (Guild). These Associations ensure the commercial interests of people involved in production of  a film and therefore, the industry customarily functions through them. Before, registering the title, the Association generally substantiates with other Associations as to ascertain whether same of deceptively similar title has been registered with them. Registration with these Associations only establishes priority in adoption of title of film and authorship of the script. 

Copyright protection cannot be extended to movie title because they lack the 'modicum of creativity' element required for protection. Copyright guidelines issued by the Registrar of Copyright have also clearly mentioned that movie titles do not form a subject matter of copyright protection.

Trademark protection can be extended to movie titles under Class 41 of schedule 4 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999. However, given due consideration to the increasing dominance of online streaming, trademark registration may also be sought under Class 9.

Disputes over titles of movies have occurred on many occasions. Some of them went to the Courts to decide.

Doordarshan vs. Door Ke Darshan

Recently, a suit seeking permanent injunction was filed by Prasar Bharti against Ritu Arya & Ors to restrain them from using Plaintiff's registered trademark "Doordarshan" as the title of Defendants' movie.

The Delhi High Court in an order dated 27th February, 2020 said that -

"Though the plaintiff has a prima facie case and the balance of convenience is also in favour of the plaintiff, but I am, at this stage, refraining from passing any ex parte order restraining defendants from using the mark DOORDARSHAN as title of their film or elsewhere in the film, only for the consideration that the defendants' film is scheduled to release tomorrow and it appears that granting any order at this stage would not give defendants ample opportunity to make the requisite changes before the release of film tomorrow, resulting in monetary and business damages as well as inconvenience/loss to persons other that the defendants".

The matter was listed for urgent hearing and was accordingly heard on 2nd March, 2020 where the Court directed the defendants to make appropriate changes in the film within two days so as to ensure the title of the film as well as any other material therein does not infringe the registered trademark of Plaintiff. Accordingly, the defendants changed the title of their film to "Door Ke Darshan".


Sholay vs. Ram Gopal Varma ke Sholay

Plaintiffs (Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt. ltd. and Ors.) had filed suit for permanent injunction restraining infringement of their registered trademark, copyright, passing off, rendition of accounts, damages and delivery up etc. against the defendants (Parag Sanghavi and Ors.).

Plaintiffs are the copyright owners and administer all intellectual property in respect of 32 cinematograph films, including the iconic and eternal hit film "SHOLAY".

The defendant no. 3 , Mr. Ram Gopal Varma announced modern remake of the iconic film Sholay proposing a title "Ram Gopal Varma ke Sholay" after he declined the offer of making remake of the film.

The Court held that the use of similar plot and characters in the impugned film coupled with use of the underlying music, lyrics and background score and even dialogues from the original film SHOLAY amounts to infringement of copyright in the film SHOLAY.

The court ultimately decided in favour of the plaintiffs and the name of the defendants’ movie was changed and Rs 10 Lakhs were granted to the plaintiffs as punitive damages and a cost of Rs. 50,000 was also imposed.


Raja Rani

R. Radha Krishnan v. Mr. A.R. Murugadoss & Ors. reported in 2013-5-L.W. 429,

The Madras High Court rejected an injunction for restraining the defendant from using the title of the plaintiff’s film ‘Raja Rani’. The Court considered various other decisions and held that the words ‘Raja Rani’ are words of common parlance which denote the king or the queen and cannot be protected under the law of copyright.


Desi Boys vs. Desi Boyz

Krishika Lulla and Ors. vs. Shyam Vithalrao Devkutta and Ors., Criminal Appeal No. 258 of 2013

The respondents claimed having written a synopsis with the title 'Desi Boys' which was circulated via email to two other persons. After the movie 'Desi Boyz' released, the respondents bought a suit against the appellants for copyright infringement. The issue before the Court was whether the respondents had a copyright in the title of the movie. The Court laid down that as per Section 13 of the Copyright Act, 1957[1], titles cannot be considered as 'works' for the purpose of copyrights. The Supreme Court held that copyrights do not subsist in the titles of literary works, including movies. Protection for the same can be granted only by trademarks.

There are plenty of such examples wherein Court has held that the title of a work cannot be copyrighted due to lack of modicum of creativity requirement. However, remedy in the form of passing off action or infringement action in case of registered trademark is available.

Recently, a marathi movie titled Ashleel Udyog Mitra Mandal faced trouble over a registered trademark "Savita Bhabhi" of a famous literary comic porn character which the movie makers allegedly used without consent of the registered proprietor. Settlement took place between the parties and name of the character in the movie was changed accordingly.


Concluding remarks:

It is pertinent to seek good legal advise while giving titles to the film and even the characters in the films and seek protection of unique titles under Trade Marks Act, 1999. Wherever conflict seems to arise, it is always better to seek permission/consent.


Cheers!

~until next time ~