M. Sathyanarayanan, J.

C.S. No. 1823 of 1994

1. It is averred by the plaintiff that it is a registered company and had obtained the sole and exclusive rights for dubbing/remaking into Telugu language the film ROJA in Cinemascope, written and directed by Thiru. Mani Rathnam and it had obtained the said rights from the second defendant, vide instrument dated 16.06.1992, as it is the original copyright owner in respect of the said picture. It is further stated by the plaintiff that they had got the sole exclusive rights for dubbing, remaking and exhibiting the said dubbed and remade version of the said picture from the second defendant for a consideration of Rs. 34,50,000/- for a period of 25 years from the date of the instrument on 16.06.1992 in respect of the areas, namely entire Andhra Pradesh, Ceded Districts (Rayalaseema), Nizam, Coastal Andhra and Orissa and by virtue of the fact that it has paid the entire consideration, it has become a limited copyright owner in respect of the Telugu version of the said picture in the aforementioned areas for a period of 25 years. It is also the specific case of the plaintiff that it has not parted with any of its rights in respect of the said Telugu version of the picture to any person in respect of the said areas and by incurring huge costs, it dubbed the said picture into Telugu and released the same very recently only in certain areas allotted to it and is yet to exploit its right in the majority of the areas allotted to it and unless and until it does so, the plaintiff will not be able to get gainful use of the dubbed version.

2. The plaintiff would further aver that to it's utter shock and surprise, it came across an advertisement made by the defendant on 06.12.1994, stating that it is going to telecast the Telugu version of the Tamil film ROJA through its satellite network on 10.12.1994 and the defendant has no right whatsoever to telecast the said picture, as the plaintiff did not part with the rights of exhibition of the picture in Telugu version to any person. It is also stated by the plaintiff that if the defendant is allowed to telecast the said picture through its satellite network, its copyright will be infringed as it could be viewed throughout the world including the areas over which the plaintiff has got sole exclusive rights of exhibition and exploitation of the said film through various media including 16mm, 35mm television rights and satellite rights. The plaintiff, on coming to know about the intention of the defendant, has sent a telegraphic notice to the learned counsel for the defendant calling upon the defendant not to telecast the said picture in view of the right claimed by the plaintiff and therefore, came forward to file the present Suit for permanent injunction restraining the defendant, its men, agents, servants or anyone claiming through them from in any manner infringing the Plaintiff's copyright over the Telugu version of the picture ROJA by telecasting the same through its satellite network and with costs.

3. Originally the Suit was filed against the first defendant alone and subsequently, the defendants 2 and 3 were impleaded, vide order dated 04.06.2007 made in A. No. 2083/1995.

4. The first defendant has filed it's written statement contending among other things that by virtue of the agreement dated 16.06.1992, the plaintiff has only theatrical rights in Andhra Pradesh and does not have satellite rights and the absolute satellite right for entire Asian Region including Andhra Pradesh have been obtained by the defendant, vide agreement dated 02.12.1994 executed by the third defendant and he has granted and assigned the exclusive satellite television rights to the first defendant for telecast in the Asian Region during the period from 02.12.1994 to 01.12.1995 for a consideration of Rs. 3,20,000/-. The defendant would further state that as satellite rights includes right to broadcast through satellite in extraterritorial orbit and beam down a microw