Kodali Bose Babu v. K. Vidya Sagar
In the High Court of Madras
C.S. 314/2009
Before Justice N. Sathish Kumar
Decided on November 5, 2019

Relevancy of the Case: Can technological advancements revert a specific right to the previous owner after the copyright assignment?

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Copyright Act, 1957 (Section 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 55, 62)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The plaintiff filed a suit to be declared as the sole and exclusive owner of the world satellite rights to broadcast the films SAHASAVANTUD and PREMA SIMHASANAM. Further, the plaintiff seeks to restrain the defendants from infringing satellite rights.
• He had acquired the sole and exclusive rights to these two films for 99 years from the second defendant on February 28, 2008. The second defendant had obtained these rights from the first defendant.
• The third defendant had obtained negative rights to these two films in 1979.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The plaintiff’s counsel argued that exploiting satellite rights was impossible in 1979. Hence, these rights remained with the first defendant through the 2008 agreement.
• The defendant’s counsel argued that technological advancements do not give a specific right to the previous owner once they have sold the negative rights.

Opinion of the Bench

• Rights acquired by the third defendant would revert to the first defendant due to technological advancements, which is not a good contention.
• Technological advancements cannot revert a specific right to the previous owner after the copyright assignment.

Final Decision

• The court dismissed the suit with no costs.

Ojasvi Gupta, an undergraduate student at the Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, prepared this case summary during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2022.