On 23rd September 2020, Justice Mukta Gupta of the Delhi High Court passed an order in the case of Star India Pvt Ltd vs Jackstream.com & Ors.
Brief Facts of the Case Star India Pvt Ltd vs Jackstream.com & Ors:-
The plaintiffs pleaded before the Court that they have exclusive television rights, internet rights, mobile rights and mobile activation rights to Indian Premier League Matches for five years (01.01.2018- 30.09.2022) for the worldwide territory.
The plaintiffs stated that various websites (defendant no.1- 38) are illegally streaming, the matches and are even making them available for download, which is a violation of the exclusive rights. The Court was also informed that the plaintiffs were not aware of the owners of these websites as most of them were anonymous and were operating the websites illegally.
The plaintiffs had impleaded Internet service providers in this case and had requested the Court to direct them to take down the erring websites.
The decision of the Court
The Hon’ble Judge was of the opinion that prima facie, defendants no. 1- 38 were infringing the exclusive rights of the plaintiff. The balance of convenience also favours the plaintiff, so an ex parte interim injunction was passed against defendant no.1 -38. These websites were barred from streaming the IPL matches.
The registrars of domain names( defendant no 39-40 ) were directed to disable the domains of the websites( def, no-1 -38)
The internet service providers were directed to stop access to the websites mentioned in the suit as well.
The Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology were directed to make sure that telecom and internet service providers complied with the order of the Court.
Case details:-
Title: Star India Pvt Ltd vs Jackstream.com & Ors.
Case No.: CS(COMM) 394/2020
Date Of Order: 23.09.2020
Quorum: Justice Mukta Gupta
Advocates: For the Plaintiffs:- Mr.Saikrishna Rajagopal Mr.Sidharth Chopra, Mr.Yatinder Garg and Mr.Vivek Ayyagari; For the Defendants:- Mr.Shantanu Sahay, Ms.Imon Roy, for D39- GoDaddy LLC Mr.K.G.Gopalakrishnan, with Mr.Amit Bhatia, for D43 Mr.K.R.Sasiprabhu, Mr.Tushar Bhardwaj, for D46- Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
