BY JUSTICE VIJENDER JAIN.
The Swayamwar Copyright Judgement
Copyright law, as generally understood, is in essence concerned with the negative right of preventing the copying of physical material existing in the field of literature and art. Its object is to protect the writer and artist from the unlawful reproduction of his material. In an interesting and a path-breaking judgment delivered on the subject by Justice Vijender Jain on March 6, 2002 in Gupta vs. Dasgupta, reported in [2003] F.S.R. 18, the Hon’ble Court dealt with the aspect of granting interlocutory injunction for a limited period as springboard relief.
In this case the Plaintiff, a media consultant, conceived the idea of producing a reality television programme containing the process of match making to the point of actual spouse selection in which real, everyday, ordinary persons would participate before a TV audience. The Plaintiff devised a unique and novel concept of leaving it to the prerogative of a woman to select a groom from a variety of suitors. The Plaintiff decided to name the concept Swayamwar, knowing that a large number of people would associate the name with the idea of a woman selecting a groom in a public forum.
After developing the concept as a literary work under the Copyright Act, the same was registered on December 17, 1997. In June 1998, the Plaintiff, in his first meeting with the Defendant, disclosed the concept to him in confidence and gave him the concept note. At a second meeting the Plaintiff made a presentation of the Swayamwar concept and further information convinced the Plaintiff that it replicated the information he had disclosed.
The Court further dismissed the plea that the Swayamwar concept had entered into the public domain as being without substance.