Delhi HC restricts unauthorised use of ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’ content

The Delhi High Court has restrained the unauthorized use of the name, characters and content of the popular television show ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah ChashmahThe creators of the show, which reportedly ran for over 16 years with approximately 4,000 episodes, claimed that various entities were using their names, character images, etc. for commercial gain by running websites, selling merchandise, and even posting “sexually explicit and vulgar” videos on YouTube.

In an interim order issued against various known and unknown entities in a suit filed by the show’s producer, Justice Mini Pushkarna said that if the ex parte interim injunction is not granted, the petitioner will suffer irreparable loss.

The plaintiff, Neela Film Productions Pvt Ltdsaid it has legal rights to several trademarks in India related to its show and characters, some of its trademarks are ‘taarak mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’, ‘Ooltah Chashmah’, ‘Taarak Mehta’, ‘Jethaalal’, ‘Gokuldhaam’, etc.

The court was informed that while the plaintiff enjoys copyright over its various characters and animations, some entities were selling unauthorized merchandise such as T-shirts, posters and stickers featuring the images and dialogues of the show’s characters through websites and e-commerce platforms.

There were also claims of content generated using artificial intelligence or deepfakes of characters and video games.

“An ex parte interim restraining order is hereby issued restraining defendants Nos. 1 to 12 and 14 to 21 (including the John Doe parties) from… publishing… offering for sale on their websites… any copyrighted material/trademarks of the plaintiff including but not limited to the title, characters, format and underlying materials in the said programme or anything else, which would otherwise constitute an infringement of the copyright/trademarks of the plaintiff/an encroachment on the goods/services offered by the defendants,” the court said in an order issued on August 14. The court further ordered that YouTube videos containing characters or material from the programme, including pornographic content, must be removed by the uploaders. In case the infringing videos are not removed within 48 hours, the Ministry of Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications will ask the respective Internet Service Providers/intermediaries to suspend all such links or videos, the court said.

It also granted liberty to the complainant to notify YouTube to block/suspend all the infringing links and also directed the platform to provide the complainant with the necessary details of the infringing uploaders.