The Delhi High Court has stepped in to safeguard the personality and publicity rights of filmmaker and producer Karan Johar, restraining several websites and online platforms from unauthorisedly using his name, image, and persona for commercial purposes.
Justice Manmeet P S Arora, while granting an ex-parte ad interim injunction in Johar’s favour, held that the filmmaker had established a prima facie case and that the balance of convenience lay in his favour. The court observed that without immediate protection, Johar’s reputation and brand value would face irreparable harm.
On a prima facie assessment, the court noted that infringing websites and platforms had “unauthorisedly exploited and misappropriated the plaintiff’s voice, name and image for commercial gain,” thereby violating his personality rights. It also pointed out that certain videos, memes, and social media posts hosted on platforms such as Pinterest, Google, and Meta contained “abusive and profane words as well as innuendoes,” which tarnished Johar’s reputation.
“The said content tarnishes the reputation and goodwill of the plaintiff affecting his brand value. The plaintiff is prima facie entitled to seek injunction to protect his personality rights against such negative use,” the court said in its September 17 order, made public on Friday.
The court issued a series of directives:
- Perfect Privacy LLC and Giphy were restrained from publishing any material infringing Johar’s personality rights and were ordered to take down identified infringing URLs.
- Godaddy India Web Services Pvt Ltd was directed to suspend and lock a domain name associated with an ‘AI Voice Swap Generator’ featuring Johar’s image.
- Certain websites were barred from selling or facilitating the sale of merchandise, including mugs and T-shirts, bearing Johar’s name and image without authorisation.
Further, the court allowed Johar to approach Meta, Google, and X (formerly Twitter) to request removal of mirror content or fake accounts misusing his identity in the future. It also directed social media intermediaries to furnish Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) and IT log details of the infringing accounts.
Johar’s suit raised multiple concerns, including unauthorised merchandise sales, obscene content, domain name misuse, impersonation, and fake profiles. He argued that his name, likeness, and persona were being commercially exploited without consent.
The court’s ruling aligns with its recent interim orders in cases filed by actor couple Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, who also sought protection of their personality and publicity rights.
