Bombay High Court Restrains Legends League Cricket From Playing PPL's Copyright Songs For This Year's Tournament

The Bombay High Court on Thursday restrained the Absolute Legend Sports Pvt. Ltd. which is organising the Legend League Cricket (LLC), a T20 tournament featuring retired international cricket players, from using the songs copyrighted by the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) in its tournament which commenced from March 11.

Several international players from Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Kartik, S Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Chris Gayle, Ambati Rayadu, Aaron Finch, Martin Guptill etc are playing in the six different teams of this year's LLC season. 

Single-judge Justice Sharmila Deshmukh passed today afternoon after considering the 'grave urgency' in the plea filed by PPL through advocate Amogh Singh, who apprised the court of the fact that the LLC organisers usually obtain the mandatory licence every year before the beginning of the tournament. In fact in 2023, the organisers had also submitted before the High Court, an undertaking, stating that they would not be using the sound recordings copyrighted by the PPL without obtaining a proper licence. 

However, this year, the LLC organisers have not yet obtained any licence and have neither responded to a notice issued by the PPL last month in this regard.

The judge noted that despite the plaintiff PPL intimating the defendants about the instant suit, none appeared for the defendants.

"Prima facie, the procurement of license by Respondent No. 1 in the past would indicate the knowledge of the Respondents that for the purpose of communicating the Plaintiff's copyrighted sound recordings, it is necessary to obtain the license from the Plaintiff. The  undertaking of December 23, 2023 acknowledges the Plaintiff's right in sound recordings of which the Plaintiff is the owner/exclusive licensee," Justice Deshmukh recorded in the order. 

The judge further noted that from March 11 to March 27, the matches of the six teams in the LLC are scheduled to take place on daily basis. 

"The action in the present case is quia timet action and apprehension that the Plaintiff's copyrighted sound recordings will be played at the matches appears to be well-founded as in the past license was procured. In light of the above, ad-interim relief is granted in terms of prayer clause (a)," the judge ordered. 

Through the prayer clause (A) in the suit, the PPL has sought an interim injunction against the defendants from using its copyrighted songs for this years LLC tournament. 

Appearance:

Advocates Amogh Singh, Jeenal Upadhyay, Aditya Upadhyay, Pranali Tulankar and Koohika Gupta appeared for the PPL. 

Case Title: Phonographic Performance Limited vs Absolute Legend Sports Private Limited [Commercial Suit (L) 27133 of 2025]

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