The central legal point established in the judgment is the plaintiff's entitlement to seek a permanent injunction based on the acquisition of overseas copyrights in respect of the film from the defendant and the defendant's history of breaching assignment agreements.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Civil Suit is filed under Order IV Rules 1 of O.S.Rules and Order VII Rule 1 of CPC r/w Section 2(1)(c)(xvii) of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate division of High Courts Act, 2018 R/w Section 3 and 62 of the Copyright Act of 1957, praying to,

(a) to grant a permanent injunction restraining the Defendant, his men, agents, servants, subordinates, successors in interest or any one claiming to him from in any manner reassign / encumber / alienate / sell or create any other form of encumbrance with respect to the overseas copy right / exhibition rights more fully described in the Schedule hereunder [excluding Malaysia] of the Tamil Film “Monkey Donkey”, starring Sriram Karthik and Yuvina, Directed by Abi Anand and Music by Suraj S. Kurup – Saleesh Padmini Subramaniam to be released in the Month of November 2021 or any other subsequent date;

(b) to grant a permanent injunction restraining their men, agents, servants, subordinates or any one claiming under him from his any manner uploading the film “Monkey Donkey” in Youtube or other related channel or to any other digital mode in the Worldwide territory assigned to the Plaintiff except Malaysia and India during the release of the film in the Month of November 2021 or any other subsequent dates;

(c) for the cost of the suit;

(d) for such other relief/s

(e) and pass such further or other orders as this Hon''ble Court may deem it fit and property in the facts and circumstances of the case and thus render justice.)

1. The present suit is filed by the plaintiff seeking permanent injunction restraining the defendant and his men from reassigning or encumbering or alienating overseas exhibition rights of the Tamil Film “Monkey Donkey” and also for injunction restraining the defendant and his men from uploading the said film in You-tube or other related channel.

Plaint Averments:

2. According to the plaintiff, he is a Producer and Distributor of Films made in Tamil and other languages having Principal Office at Chennai. The plaintiff is in the business of purchasing film rights exclusively for distribution in the territories other than India. The defendant is also in the business of film distribution across the World. It was averred in the plaint that the sister concern of the plaintiff namely “M/s Trade Point” was a proprietor concern and his wife Mrs.Madhavi was its proprietrix. The defendant entered into Agreement of Assignment on 24.03.2021 with plaintiff''s sister concern Trade Point for assignment of overseas right of Tamil feature film ''Manja Sattai Pacha Sattai'' starring Guru Somasundaram and others directed by Thambakutty. A sum of Rs.6 lakhs was paid as a consideration for assignment of said rights under the agreement. The defendant, violating the terms of said agreement, sold the overseas right of film ''Manja Sattai Pacha Sattai'' to a third party viz., M/s. A.P. International. The film was released Worldwide on 15th April 2021 and thereby, the plaintiff''s sister concern Trade Point was completely deceived. As the plaintiff demanded return of consideration of Rs.6 lakhs paid to defendant along with damages of Rs.5 lakhs for breach of contract, the defendant entered into another assignment contract with the plaintiff to compensate the loss. Accordingly, the defendant entered into another Assignment Agreement with the plaintiff on 24.07.2021 whereunder he assigned the exclusive overseas right of the film ''Monkey Donkey'' for entire World except Malaysia to the plaintiff. The receipt of additional consideration of Rs.2,50,000/- was admitted and acknowledged by the defendant in the agreement itself. At the time of assignment, it was represented by the defendant that he had purchased the overseas rights of the film ''Monkey Donkey'' from M/s Ruby Films for a sum of Rs.10 lakhs by way of Agreement dated 17.08.2020.