Novex Communications Pvt. Ltd. v. WT Hotels Pvt. Ltd. & Anr
In the High Court of Madras
Civil Suit 991/2017
Before Justice M. Sundar
Decided on March 28, 2018

Relevancy of the Case: Permanent injunction to prevent on-ground performance of sound recordings without the requisite license

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Copyright Act, 1957 (Section 14, 30, 52A)
• The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Order XIII-A Rule 3)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The plaintiff’s company protects copyrights of songs for which it is an assignee/licensee.
• It also issues licenses on behalf of the original copyright holder for the on-ground public performance of sound recordings.
• There are two defendants in this case. The first defendant is an event management company organising events in the second defendant’s hotel.
• The plaintiff believes the defendants would play the songs for which they have the rights in an upcoming event. This act would amount to infringement of the plaintiff company’s rights.
• The plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction against the defendants to prevent them from playing the concerned songs.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The counsel, appearing on behalf of the first and second defendants, filed an affidavit. This affidavit states that the defendants have not played the plaintiff’s songs. They would only do so after obtaining the requisite license from the plaintiff.

Opinion of the Bench

• The exploitation of copyright, concerning on-ground performance, is exclusively with the plaintiff.
• Based on the defendants’ declarations in the affidavit, this is a fit case for summary judgment.
• As the defendants have already agreed to the plaintiff’s prayer, there is no need to pass any further orders.

Final Decision

• The court decreed the suit without costs.

Satvik Mishra, an undergraduate student at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, and Srikari Ammanamanchi, an undergraduate student at the NALSAR University of Law, prepared this case summary during their internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2022.