IPR Newsletter – Delhi High Court Sets a Precedent: Protecting Anil Kapoor’s Personality Rights : Dec 2023

Introduction

The Delhi High Court recently passed a very significant order protecting the publicity and personality rights of Bollywood Actor Anil Kapoor. An interim order was issued to restrain 16 entities from any misuse of the actor’s name, image, dialogue, voice, or other elements of his personality for commercial purposes including social media platforms and e-commerce websites.
The court also restrained the use of Artificial Intelligence, AI tools to impersonate his personality for monetary gains. The order highlights the importance of protecting the privacy of celebrities and putting a stop to the exploitation of their image without prior permissions or contractual compensation. The present case shows how elements of intellectual property that protect the attributes of an individual, in fact, have other dimensions including rights protected by the Constitution of India.

Understanding Personality Rights

Personality rights also known as the right of publicity, refer to a legal concept that recognizes and protects an individual’s right to control and profit from the commercial use of their name, likeness, image, voice, or other elements of their personal identity. These rights are primarily aimed at safeguarding an individual’s personal and economic interests in their own identity and preventing unauthorized exploitation by others. These rights protect individuals from unauthorized exploitation by others for commercial gain. For example, using a celebrity’s image to endorse a product without their consent would typically violate their personality rights.

Personality rights allow individuals to capitalize on their public image and reputation. Celebrities often license their image for use in advertising or endorse products and services for a fee. These rights enable them to control such uses and benefit financially from them. Individuals whose personality rights have been violated can seek legal remedies, including damages, injunctions to stop unauthorized use, and the right to profits earned through unauthorized exploitation. In the case of public figures like Anil Kapoor, their personality rights are of particular importance, as their name and image hold significant commercial value.

Delhi High Court Interim Order On Restraining Exploitation Of Personality Rights

The allegation of the Plaintiff in the case was that all the Defendants were in some manner utilizing various features of the Plaintiff’s persona, and are misusing the same in malicious ways.

The Plaintiff asserted that the Defendants from a large number of these websites are collecting money, fees etc. by selling various merchandise with Plaintiff’s image, likeness and other elements of his persona, and are gaining monetary benefits out of it.

Order Of The Court

According to the court, “Fame can come with its own disadvantages. This case shows that reputation and fame can transcend into damaging various rights of a person including his right to livelihood, right to privacy, right to live with dignity within a social structure, etc. There can be no doubt that free speech in respect of a well-known person is protected in the form of the right to information, news, satire, parody that is authentic, and also genuine criticism. However, when the same crosses a line, and results in tarnishment, blackening or jeopardizes the individual’s personality, or attributed associated with the said individual, it would be illegal.”
The court further observed that there can be no justification for any unauthorized website or platform to mislead consumers into believing that they are permitted to collect fees by incorrectly portraying that they can bring the Plaintiff as a motivational speaker.  Using a person’s name, voice, dialogues, and images in an illegal manner, that too for commercial purposes, cannot be permitted.

The celebrity’s right to endorsement is a major source of livelihood for the celebrity, which cannot be destroyed by the permitting unlawful dissemination and sale of merchandise such as t-shirts, magnets, key chains, cups, stickers, masks, etc. bearing the face or attributes of their persona on it without their lawful authorization.Additionally, the court also took into account the misuse of Artificial Intelligence in hampering the right to privacy of Anil Kapoor. It further addressed the issue of generating actor’s morphed images and videos with other actresses which are not only offensive to the Plaintiff but also to other third-party celebrities and actresses. The creation of ringtones and GIF images for commercial gains would also be a complete misuse of Plaintiff’s rights.

The court established a prima facie case for the grant of an ex-parte injunction. It ordered that Defendant Nos.1 to 16 or anyone acting for or on their behalf are restrained from utilizing Plaintiff – Anil Kapoor’s name, likeness, image, voice, personality or any other aspects of his persona to create any merchandise, ringtones, ring back tones, or in any other manner misuse the said attributes using technological tools such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, deep fakes, face morphing, GIFs either for monetary gains or otherwise to create any videos, photographs, etc., for commercial purposes.

Conclusion

The court has ordered the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to issue a blocking order explicitly targeting pornographic content that uses morphed content of the actor in response to a substantial concern voiced by Kapoor. It’s important to note that the Delhi High Court previously issued a similar interim order in a case involving veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan last year.  The court’s rulings sent a clear message about the significance of respecting and protecting the personal and publicity rights of public figures in an era of artificial intelligence, setting a precedent for the protection of celebrity rights in India.