The court upheld the copyright protection of the plaintiff's animated film 'Ramayana' and restrained the defendants from violating the copyright.

VALMIKI J. MEHTA, J (ORAL)

1. Plaintiff M/s Interlude Technologies, a proprietorship concern through proprietor Sh. Amit Sharma, has filed the present suit against a total of 8 defendants alleging infringement of copyright, passing off, seeking rendition of accounts, etc with respect to the case of the plaintiff that defendants have violated the copyright of the plaintiff in the animated feature film ‘Ramayana’ created by the plaintiff.

2. Defendants have not appeared in the suit and have been proceeded ex parte. Though originally the defendant no.5 appeared and contested the suit however the defendant no.5 thereafter chose not to appear and was proceeded ex parte. Vide a detailed Order dated 13.4.2009 of a learned Single Judge of this Court, interim injunction in favour of the plaintiff was confirmed and the defendants were restrained from in any manner violating the copyright of the plaintiff in the animation film ‘Ramayana’ either by telecasting the same or in any other manner.

3. The case of the plaintiff is that the plaintiff is engaged in the manufacturing and publishing of animated cinematographical films and their licensing and distribution etc. Plaintiff states that he does his business by manufacturing and publishing animated films and videos in various categories. The various steps required for preparation of animated films with respect to which plaintiff has a copyright are stated in para 2 of the plaint as under:-

“i) The first step is to write a script for the given subject. Scripts comprises of narrations and dialogues of various characters. The script is then edited and finalised.

ii) The finalized script is then given shape in the S/W process flow chart from of wherein everything is explained in detail. The software development done as per the S/W process flow chart.

iii) The story board comprising of voice over, narrations and dialogue delivery is then sent to Plaintiff in house digital sound studios wherein where in professional voice artist and mimicry artist record voices and narration for the given characters. The recorded voice is edited and background sound/music and special effects is inserted according to the storyboard.

iv) Now the story board is ready for the development team, who first of all identify all the characters used in the story boards and start drawing the characters in every angle, once all the characters are drawn they are given movement through various animation tools simultaneously voice/music is synchronized according to story board.

v) Once everything is animated as per the story board final video is rendered and then it is edited by the editor who check for mistakes/discrepancies, if any.

vi) It is rectified for any mistakes/discrepancies and again the final video is rendered and a final Master CD is written/burnt.

vii) Plaintiff then make multiple copies of the above made final products Master CD with the help of Plaintiff in house multi duplicator machine.”

4. Plaintiff pleads that plaintiff has created the animated feature film ‘Ramayana’ of which he/it has the original source code. Defendant no.7/ETC Network and defendant no.8/Zee TV Network are the TV channels which telecast the movies. Defendant no.1 is the company which has infringed the copyright of the plaintiff. Defendant nos. 2 to 4 are the Directors or the persons in-charge of the defendant no.1/company. Defendant nos. 5 and 6 as per the plaintiff were in the employment of the plaintiff and they are the persons who are stated to have stolen the copyright material of the plaintiff and given it to defendant nos. 1 to 4.

5. Plaintiff has filed his affidavit by way of evidence and has proved the creation of the animated film ‘Ramayana’ and which is an original literary work and a copyright material as per Section 2(o) and Section 13(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957. The idea was developed by the plaintiff in the year 2004 whereafter he created the script in a year or two thereafter. The copy of frame by frame cha