Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Actor Mohanlal Against AI-Generated Content, Unauthorized Merchandise

The Delhi High Court has passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of veteran Malayalam actor Mohanlal.

Justice Jyoti Singh restrained multiple entities, including unknown entities, from unauthorized commercial exploitation of his personality attributes, including through AI-generated content.

The Court held that the actor had made out a prima facie case for protection of his personality and publicity rights, observing that any unauthorized use of a celebrity's persona leads to commercial detriment and reputational harm.

“Plaintiff has a right to protect his name, likeness, voice and image, which are the elements and attributes of his persona and personality and no third party has a right to use these attributes without his authorisation. It is equally settled that when attributes of famous personalities are unauthorisedly used, it leads to commercial detriment,” the Court said.

It added that a celebrity's right of endorsement acts as a major source of likelihood which cannot be destroyed by permitting unlawful dissemination and sale of merchandise or other articles bearing the face or attributes of his or her persona without authorisation.

The suit alleged widespread misuse of Mohanlal's name, image, voice and likeness across e-commerce platforms and social media.

The actor contended that several websites were selling merchandise such as T-shirts, posters and accessories bearing his persona without authorization, amounting to passing off and infringement of personality rights.

Additionally, various social media accounts were accused of disseminating AI-generated content, including deepfakes, voice cloning tutorials, and objectionable material, falsely suggesting endorsement or association with the actor.

Passing interim order in the actor's favour, Justice Singh noted that is one of the most distinguished actors in Indian cinema with an illustrious career spanning over 4 decades with more than 360 cinematograph films to his credit.

The Court concluded that defendants no. 1 to 14 were operating commercial merchandise websites, which offer sale of products such as T Shirts, hoodies, posters etc. using the actor's name, image, likeness and other personality attributes without his authorisation and infringing his personality and publicity rights, besides the right to endorse various products for commercial gain and this also amounts to passing off.

It added that Defendants No.20 to 36 were creating and disseminating unauthorised content which includes Mohanlal's association or endorsements as also distasteful content involving body shaming and unparliamentary and sexually explicit language.

Accordingly, the Court restrained the Defendants from using Mohanlal's name, image, voice or likeness for any commercial or personal gain, including through AI technologies.

Justice Singh ordered e-commerce platforms to remove infringing listings within 36 hours. The Court directed the social media users to delete specified URLs within the same timeframe.

It further directed Meta, Google and X must act if the users fail to comply with takedown directions. The intermediaries are also directed to provide Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) and IP logs of infringing accounts in sealed cover.

Counsel for Plaintiff: Mr. M.F. Philip, Mr. Sreehari Indukaladhasran, Ms. Smitha Damoparan Nair, Mr. Togin Babichen, Ms. Purnima Krishna and Mr. Karamveer Singh Yadav, Advocates

Counsel for Defendants: Mr. Anirudh D. and Mr. Shubh Kapoor, Advocates for D-3; Mr. Gyanendra Rathour, Advocates for D-5; Ms. Amee Rana, Ms. Sana Banyal and Ms. Komal Pathak, Advocates for D-15; Ms. Ekta Sharma, Mr. Udit Tewari, Ms. Surabhi Katare and Mr. Nikhil Bharti, Advocates for D-1

Title: MOHANLAL VISWANATHAN NAIR v. JOHN DOE/ASHOK KUMAR AND ORS

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