K.V. Rajendran v. A.R. Murugadoss

Raj PagariyaCase Summary

Amicable settlement through a Memo of Compromise in a copyright dispute among two screenwriters for a similar storyline

K.V. Rajendran v. A.R. Murugadoss
In the High Court of Madras
C.S. 715/2018
Before Justice M. Sundar
Decided on February 30, 2018

Relevancy of the Case: Amicable settlement through a Memo of Compromise in a copyright dispute among two screenwriters for a similar storyline

Statutes and Provisions Involved

  • The Copyright Act, 1957 (Section 62)
  • The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Order VII Rule 1)
  • The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (Section 2, 7)

Relevant Facts of the Case

  • The plaintiff has more than two years of experience in the film industry. The first defendant is a popular writer and director of the movie Sarkar. The second defendant is in the business of production and distribution of movies. The third defendant is a film writers’ association.
  • The plaintiff is an associate member of the third defendant’s association. He registered his manuscript titled Sengol in 2007 with registration number 1926.
  • The first defendant directed the Sarkar movie based on his story titled Pachai registered with the third defendant in 2017.
  • The plaintiff approached the High Court claiming that the first defendant had copied his copyrighted script. The plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction against the first and second defendants, restraining them from showing the first defendant’s name as story, screenplay, and dialogue writer.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

  • The counsels have presented the Memo of Compromise (MOC) showing the mutual agreement between the parties to amicably settle the dispute. As per MOC,
    • The first defendant would not object to the plaintiff producing any film based on his 2007 script.
    • The plaintiff would not object to the screening of the movie Sarkar in Tamil, or any other language.
    • The first defendant, with the second and third defendants’ consent, will acknowledge the plaintiff’s script in the movie’s credits.
    • All the parties would bear their own costs to the suit.

Opinion of the Bench

  • All the parties have agreed to settle this dispute in unison.

Final Decision

  • The court took the MOC on record and passed the decree.