Case: Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu Alias Vishnu Manchu vs. Arebumdum & Ors
Citation: I.A. 40391/2024 in CS (COMM) 828/2024
Coram: HMJ Mini Pushkarna
The Delhi Hight Court has issued an order restraining third-party infringers from exploiting personality/ publicity rights of well-known Telegu actor and film producer, Vishnu Manchu.
It was Mr. Manchu’s case that the defendants’ use of Artificial Intelligence tools to morph/superimpose Mr. Manchu’s face and to create his images and/or audio-video clips, which were in bad taste, resultantly damaged Mr. Manchu’s reputation. Mr. Manchu claimed that creation of audio and visual content using his personality traits, such as, his name, voice, image or its likeness and any other attributes of his personality, without his consent not only infringes on his personality rights but such use in bad taste also prejudiced his honour and dignity.
Mr. Manchu, accordingly, approached the Court to restrain misappropriation of his personality/ publicity rights and to protect his distinctive persona. Mr. Manchu also sought for a John Dow order against unidentified infringers for exploiting and violating his personality rights.
The Court ruled that, Mr. Manchu has demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of permanent injunction and would suffer an irreparable loss if no injunction is granted. Accordingly, the Court granted an interim injunction in Mr. Manchu’s favour, directed Department of Telecommunications; Ministry of Electronics, Information Technology and YouTube to suspend/takedown all infringing links/websites/contents. Click here to read the judgement copy.