Bombay High Court Restrains Performance Of Copyrighted Songs In New Year 2024 Event At Lucknow's Ramada Hotel

The Bombay High Court on Friday granted ad-interim injunction against playing of copyrighted songs without license in the New Year 2024 event to be organized at Ramada Hotel, Lucknow.

Justice RI Chagla granted the relief to Phonographic Performance Ltd. (PPL) in its infringement suit against Kaamakazi Solution Pvt. Ltd, the organizer of the event.

“In my view, in the absence of ad-interim relief, the Plaintiff will suffer grave irreparable loss. A prima facie case made out of the likelihood of infringement of the Plaintiff copyrighted works. This Court is of the prima faice view that the balance of convenience is in favour of the Plaintiff and the Defendants have chosen not to make an appearance despite service. Hence, the ad-interim relief is being granted”, the court observed.

The suit was filed by PPL alleging potential copyright infringement and unauthorized public performance of its sound recordings during the upcoming New Year's event at the Ramada Hotel. PPL claimed that it is the exclusive licensee/assignee of the public performance rights of around 400 music labels with over 45 lakh international and domestic sound recordings. It further claimed to be exclusively entitled to grant license for communicating to the public the public performance repertoire under Section 30 of the Copyright Act, 1957.

The interim application mentioned that defendants were planning to communicate to the public the repertoire of sound recordings owned by PPL during the New Year event without obtaining necessary license. The advertisement of the event on the Instagram page of Ramada Hotel showed intention to play the sound recordings, PPL said.

It was argued that having control over more than 70 percent of sound recordings, PPL's apprehension that the defendants will infringe on its right over the sound recordings during the event is legitimate. A past instance where the defendants had obtained a license for communicating PPL's sound recordings to the public was also pointed out.

The court noted that the larger issue regarding applicability of Section 30 of the Copyright Act to PPL in the present suit was yet to be determined. However, in light of the impending New Year's event, it was of the view that PPL had made out a prima facie case for ad-interim relief.

Consequently, the defendants were restrained from publicly performing or communicating PPL's sound recordings without obtaining non-exclusive public performance rights.

The interim application is scheduled for further consideration on January 5, 2024.

Senior Advocate Sharan Jagtiani with Advocates Apurva Manwani, Asmant Nimbalkar and Neeraj Nawar i/b. DP Singh appeared for PPL

Case No. - Interim Application (L) No. 35625 of 2023 in COM IPR SUIT (L) No. 35592 of 2023

Case Title - Phonographic Performance Ltd. v. Kaamakazi Solution Pvt. Ltd. & Ors

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