Delhi HC restrains misuse of personality attributes of Anil Kapoor, even ‘jhakaas’

Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; September 21, 2023)

WHAT
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of Anil Kapoor and restrained various entities from misusing his image, name, voice or other elements of his persona for commercial purposes without his consent.

WHY
Anil Kapoor sought to restrain the use of his name, the acronym AK, his voice, image, as well as his characters like Lakhan, Mr India, Majnu Bhai, Nayak and the phrase jhakaas with his photo without his consent. He is also seeking protection from use of any technology including AI deepfakes, GIFs etc. The actor’s legal team identified 44 links that the court has ordered to be blocked.

CAN NO ONE USE JHAKAAS NOW?
The actor sought to restrain the use of sobriquets like Lakhan, Mr India, Majnu Bhai, Nayak and the word jhakaas without his consent. The word jhakaas can be used by people but they can’t use it how Anil Kapoor says it and/ or with his image for any commercial purposes. It can be used for satire, parody and criticism, but not for monetary gains.
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“I had filed a suit in Delhi High Court for protection of my personality rights – including my name, image, likeness, voice, and other attributes of my personality – against any misuse, including on digital media. The suit has various instances of misuse of my attributes. The court has, after a detailed hearing, granted an order acknowledging my personality rights and restraining all offenders from misusing my personality attributes including my name, image, likeness, voice etc without my permission in any manner, including through artificial intelligence, deep fakes, GIFs, etc”

‘IT’S A LANDMARK ORDER’
With rapid changes in technology, there has been rampant misuse of personality attributes such as name, image, likeness, voice etc through tools like artificial intelligence. In a landmark order, the Delhi HC restrains unauthorised use of Anil Kapoor’s personality rights through these tools, including AI, without his consent for illegal commercial gains. The order sets a precedent against such misuse in the future – Ameet Naik and Pravin Anand, partners at Anand and Naik, who represented Anil Kapoor

THE BACHCHAN CASE

THE PETITION: Amitabh Bachchan moved the Delhi High Court seeking personality and publicity rights. His legal team told the court that illegal lotteries were being organised by using his name.

THE COURT ORDER: In November last year, the court issued an order restraining the use of Bachchan’s name, image, voice or any of his characteristics without his consent. The order was against the world-at-large.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES (September 21, 2023)

After actor Anil Kapoor moved the Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking a permanent injunction restraining infringement of his publicity and personality rights against people at large, the court has restrained the misuse of the name, image, voice and other attributes of persona, including the “jhakaas” catchphrase, for commercial gain.

Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the ex-parte interim order against websites and platforms on a lawsuit by the actor, alleging unauthorised exploitation of his personality and celebrity rights for commercial use.

Kapoor had raised concerns that AI was being misused to prejudice his hard-earned reputation and have an effect, especially a negative one, on his exclusive rights to commercially benefit from his persona.

The Justice observed that while there can be no doubt that free speech is protected, the same would be illegal when it “crosses the line” and results in tarnishing and jeopardising individual personality rights. “Using the plaintiff’s name, voice, dialogue and image in an illegal manner, that too for commercial purposes, cannot be permitted,” the Justice said.

“Defendants 1 to 16 are restrained from using... in any manner the plaintiff’s name, likeness, voice, or any other attributes of his personality... for monetary gain or otherwise,” the court ordered.

It also restrained other unknown persons from disseminating the offending links and directed the authorities to block the offending platforms. It also said “fame for a person comes with disadvantages” and “this case shows that reputation and fame can transcend into damage”, and added such misuse can damage a celebrity’s right to endorsement. Last year, the HC passed an interim order in a similar case concerning actor Amitabh Bachchan.