The judgment emphasizes the need for a prima facie case of copyright infringement, originality in literary works, and the requirement to demonstrate irreparable loss for interim relief.

JUDGMENT

Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, J. - Ia No.18527/2019 (of plaintiff u/O XXXIX R-1&2 CPC) & IA No.82/2020 (of D-1&2 u/O XXXIX R-4 CPC)

1. The plaintiff has instituted this suit "for permanent injunction against infringement of copyright, against disclosure of confidential information, damages and accounts of profit" against Priyanka Ghatak, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. and Mr. Shantonu Sen, pleading that:

(i) the plaintiff is a production house which creates varied content and has made numerous short films; the plaintiff has its own channel, on which it uploads many of its short films; the plaintiff is also working on a huge series based on new and thought provoking content;

(ii) defendant no.1 is a script writer of a serial (web series) comprising 8 episodes, to be streamed on internet streaming site of defendant no.2; the defendant no.2 is a major entertainment company engaged inter alia in film production, television broadcasting, radio sound recording production and various internet services; the defendant no.3 is a proforma defendant, impleaded in compliance with Section 61 of the Copyright Act, 1957;

(iii) the plaintiff acquired the rights for derivative exploitation by adaptation for different modes of media of a book titled "CBI Insider Speaks: Birlas to Sheila Dikshit" authored by defendant no.3, a former Joint Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI); Chapter 7 of the said book is titled as "Shuttlecock Investigation: Syed Modi Murder Case";

(iv) in November, 2019, the defendant no.2 approached the defendant no.3 for a license for adaptation of the book aforesaid authored by the defendant no.3, for a web series and all other purposes; the defendant no.3 informed the defendant no.2 that the said rights had already been exclusively licensed to the plaintiff; the defendant no.3 then sent an e-mail dated 26th November, 2019 to the plaintiff in this regard;

(v) on 27th November, 2019, the defendant no.2 contacted the plaintiff, seeking a transfer of rights for adaptation of the said book; however the plaintiff expressed reluctance thereto;

(vi) on 28th November, 2019, the defendant no.2 sent an e-mail to the plaintiff, again offering to acquire the rights in the aforesaid book authored by the defendant no.3 and which rights defendant no.3 had licensed to the plaintiff;

(vii) on 10th December, 2019, the plaintiff sent an e-mail to defendant no.2 suggesting on a preliminary basis, the possibility of cooperation; the defendant no.2 did not reply to the said e-mail of the plaintiff;

(viii) on 11th December, 2019, the defendant no.3 sent a notice to defendant no.2, referring to a conversation on 9th December, 2019 with the defendant no.2 wherein the defendant no.2 again tried to acquire the rights in the book aforesaid from the defendant no.3;

(ix) on 26th December, 2019, the defendant no.3 sent a follow-up notice to defendant no.2, after having learnt that the defendant no.2 had already shot a serial on the Syed Modi Murder Case from the book of the defendant no.3; a copy of the said notice was also sent by defendant no.3 to the plaintiff;

(x) on further exploration, the plaintiff found that the defendant no.2 had been planning the release of a web series on the same subject, of murder of Syed Modi, under the title "Chargesheet: The Shuttlecock Murder";

(xi) the title aforesaid clearly showed adaptation by the defendant no.2 of Chapter 7 of the defendants no.3''s book and rights wherein the defendant no.2 had been unsuccessfully trying to acquires from the plaintiff and defendant No.3;

(xii) the defendant no.2, apparently on second thought, changed the game played by the murder victim, from badminton to table tennis; however the story of the web serial of defendant no.2 still identified with Chapter 7 of the book of defendant no.3;

(xiii) the mala fides of defendant no.2 are also evident from the claim of the defendant no.1 in the media, of having no idea of Syed Modi Murder Case until the start of the shows productio