After Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan moves Delhi HC to protect his personality rights
After Aishwarya Rai, actor Abhishek Bachchan has moved the Delhi High Court to protect his personality rights. Dig inside for further details!
New Delhi: After Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan has moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights. He has alleged that rogue websites were using his name and photos without authorization. The Ludo actor has filed a plea against the website ‘Bollywood Tea Shop’, which makes t-shirts with Bollywood celebrities' photos printed on them.
Abhishek Bachchan moves Delhi High Court
In his petition, Abhishek Bachchan argued that the unauthorised use of his persona is part of a wider trend of online fraud exploiting celebrities’ identities. The plea was filed against the website, Bollywood Tea Shop, and other infringers. The actor also seeks injunctions to block the website and other offenders, further asking for infringing URLs, and directions to intermediaries such as Google and YouTube to take down unlawful content.
He also sought liberty to extend the order to ‘John Dow’ defendants to unidentified parties that may host similar infringement material in the future. John Doe is a type of court order issued against unidentified offenders. In intellectual property and personality right cases, the order allows celebrity, brand or copyright holder to stop unknown offenders who may misuse their name, image, or content.
Advocate Dhruv Anand, representing Abhishek Bachchan, shared that the platform was selling merchandise, creating a misleading impression of endorsement.
In a statement, counsel Ameet Naik said, "The law on personality rights has evolved over time thanks to our judiciary giving recognition. We are fortunate to have been the first ones to get the order for Abhishek Bachchan, followed by Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, and now for Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. Such orders are the need of the hour and absolutely necessary to protect against misuse of celebrity attributes, particularly through AI and other digital tools.”
Aishwarya Rai approaches Delhi High Court
On Tuesday (September 9), Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also moved the Delhi High Court to protect her publicity and personality rights. She raised objections over the unauthorized use of her name, photographs, and identity on various platforms and products. The court agreed to pass injunction orders after she complained of her images being morphed and misused.