Delhi High Court
Doctutorials Edutech Private ... vs Telegram Fz-Llc & Ors. on 14 July, 2022
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
$~17
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Date of Decision: 14th July, 2022
+ CS (COMM) 60/2022 & I.As.1338/2022, 3184/2022, 7176/2022,
10662-63/2022
DOCTUTORIALS EDUTECH PRIVATE LIMITED ..... Plaintiff
Through: Ms. Anjali Anchayil, Advocates.
versus
TELEGRAM FZ-LLC & ORS. ..... Defendants
Through: Ms. Anushka Sharda and Mr. Madhav
Khosla, Advocates for D-1.
(M:9811039074)
Mrs. Bindra Rana, Ms. Priya
Adlakha, Ms. Rima Majumdar and
Ms. Shilpi Sinha, Advocates for D-2.
(M:9818202368)
Ms. Nidhi Raman, CGSC with Mr.
Zubin Singh, Advocate for D-3.
(M:9555672532)
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)
1. The present suit has been filed by the Plaintiff - Doctutorials Edutech
Private Limited (hereinafter "Plaintiff") seeking mandatory and permanent
injunction, as also grant of damages, for protection of various copyrighted
works and the Plaintiff's trademark 'DocTutorials', including video lectures
and other related contents, which the Plaintiff has created for the purpose of
imparting coaching for medical entrance examinations.
2. The Plaintiff provides an online medical entrance examination
coaching platform for examinations such as NEET PG, FMGE and NEET
SS. The Plaintiff runs its business through a website registered as
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
https://www.doctutorials.com/ and a mobile application 'Doc Tutorials'. The
Plaintiff has around 5900 active subscribers. The Plaintiff's annual revenue
was around 7 crores in the financial year 2021-22. The Plaintiff provides
high quality audio visual medical content which is paid, soft copy notes, test
and discussion videos, regular test series, etc. All of these can be accessed
by subscription through the mobile application or the Plaintiff's website.
3. The grievance in the present suit was that there were several unknown
persons, who were uploading and transmitting the video lectures on publicly
accessible platforms. Defendant No.1/Telegram FZ-LLC (hereinafter
"Telegram") is a cloud-based messaging platform and Defendant
No.2/Mega Limited (hereinafter "Mega") offers cloud storage and file
hosting. Both these platforms are being used by unknown Defendant Nos.
5&6 to share the Plaintiff's content unauthorizedly. Despite efforts, the
Plaintiff could not identify the unknown persons, who were indulging in
such illegalities. Accordingly, the present suit was filed seeking blocking
orders and take down orders against the said websites, URLs and Telegram
channels.
4. This Court had, vide order dated 25th January, 2022, passed a detailed
order issuing an injunction against the Defendants in the following terms:
"19. The present suit has been filed for grant of
permanent injunction and damages against
unknown defendants no.5 and 6 (whose identities
are unknown and hence, designated as John Doe)
and their associates to restrain them from
infringing the plaintiff's intellectual property and
releasing the plaintiff's paid video lecture content
on public platforms operated by the defendants
no.1 and 2, along with ancillary reliefs.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
20. Plaintiff, who is the exclusive licensee of the
copyrighted material which forms part of the
subject matter of this suit, is in the business of
providing online medical examination coaching
platforms for medical entrance examinations and
runs its business through the website
https://www.doctutorials.com/ and a mobile
application 'DocTutorials'. It is claimed that due
to high quality videos and other preparatory
materials made available by the plaintiff to its
users, the plaintiff is a leading platform and
source of examination preparation for students all
over India.
21. It is averred that the defendants no.5 and 6
have hacked into the secure service of the plaintiff
and accessed the copyrighted paid video content
using the usernames such as 'OmniGratis',
'OmniGrata', etc. My attention has been drawn to
various channels made using the platform offered
by the defendant no.1 and website provided on the
platform of the defendant no.2 containing the
infringing material. Despite notices from the
plaintiff, the defendants have not taken down the
infringing material.
22. Senior counsel appearing on behalf of the
defendant no.1 submits that as and when the
defendant no.1 is notified about the infringement
activities being carried out on their channels with
specific links, the defendant no.1 expeditiously
takes them down, which has also been
acknowledged by the plaintiff. He states that in the
future as well, the defendant no.1 would continue
to expeditiously take down all links in respect of
the infringing material, upon communication by
the plaintiff.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
23. Counsel appearing for the defendant no.2 also
makes a similar statement, that the defendant no.2
is willing to take down all offending websites
expeditiously, upon being notified of the same by
the plaintiff.
XXX
28. In my view, plaintiff has made out a prima
facie case for grant of ex parte ad interim
injunction. From the material shown to the Court,
it appears that the defendants no.5 and 6 are
infringing on the copyrighted material of which
the plaintiff is the exclusive licensee and are
making unauthorized use of the same. Thus,
balance of convenience is in favour of the plaintiff.
Irreparable harm and injury would be caused to
the plaintiff if an ex parte ad interim injunction is
not granted in favour of the plaintiff.
29. Consequently, till the next date of hearing the
defendants no.5 and 6, their owners, partners,
proprietors, officers, servants, employees, and all
others in the capacity of principal or agent acting
for and on their behalf, or anyone claiming
through, by or under it, etc. are restrained from
using the plaintiff's trademark and copyrighted
content on the channels/website(s) as detailed in
prayer (i) to the present application on the
platforms run by defendants no.1 and 2.
30. Defendants no.1 and 2 shall remain bound by
their statement that they will take down all
unauthorized illegal content in respect of
copyrighted video content of the plaintiff which is
posted/hosted/uploaded on their channels and
upon being notified by the plaintiff, will
expeditiously block access and take down the said
channels.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
31. Defendants no. 1 and 2 are directed to provide
all details of the offending parties that are
available with them to the plaintiff, including the
IP details, identification, emails, phone numbers."
5. A perusal of the above directions would reveal that insofar as
Defendant Nos. 4 & 5 are concerned, they were directed to take down all the
unauthorized illegal contents and also provide details of the offending
parties including the IP details, identification, emails, phone numbers etc.
Thereafter, Telegram filed an application being I.A. 3184/2022 seeking
modification of the order dated 25th January, 2022, to the effect that the
directions for providing data of the unknown Defendants ought to be
recalled, so long as Telegram takes down the unauthorized content. It raises
several defences in this regard.
6. Insofar as Mega - a New Zealand based company - is concerned, it
has filed an affidavit of compliance dated 6th May, 2022, in which certain
details of the offending parties, who had started the impugned links, have
been provided. The said data was provided to the ld counsel for the Plaintiff,
who has today made a submission that from the data which has been
provided, the Plaintiff is unable to identify the actual persons, who were
communicating the infringing content on these channels and on the said
URLs and websites.
7. Accordingly, ld. Counsel for the Plaintiff submits that the injunction
order and the orders directing take down be finally confirmed in the suit. No
further reliefs are being pressed by the Plaintiff. Ld. Counsels appearing for
Mega and Telegram submit that they have no objection to the `take-down'
orders being confirmed.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
8. This Court has perused the affidavit filed by Defendant No.2. It is
seen from the data provided by Defendant No.2 in the compliance affidavit,
that the only identities that these persons have, are email addresses and in
some cases, IP addresses. However, there are no other details, as according
to ld. counsel for Defendant No.2, the cloud service is a free cloud service to
the extent of some amount of storage, where limited details are required for
registration. It is only after the first level of storage is crossed, that the same
becomes a subscription service, and requires further details for registration.
9. In view of the stand taken by the counsels for the parties, the present
suit is decreed with the direction that whenever unauthorized and illegal
content, relating to the copyrighted data or any content using the Plaintiff's
mark, is noticed in any of the channels/websites/URLs hosted by Telegram
or Mega, the Plaintiff would be free to issue notice to Telegram and Mega/
Defendant Nos. 1&2. Upon receiving such notice, Defendant Nos. 1&2 shall
immediately take down all the illegal/unauthorized content posted or
uploaded or communicated on their platforms within 48 hours.
10. Insofar as Department of Telecommunications/Defendant No.3
(hereinafter "DoT") is concerned, the said URLs, websites, as
communicated by the Plaintiff from time to time, in accordance with the
above paragraph, shall also be blocked within 48 hours, which shall be given
effect to by the ISPs.
11. Insofar as the stand of Defendant Nos.1 & 2 that they are not
authorized to disclose details of the persons including subscriber
information, emails, IP address details, phone numbers etc. are concerned, it
is made clear that the legal issues that arise therein are left open for being
adjudicated upon in an appropriate case.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:16.07.2022
13:37:19
12. The suit shall stand decreed in terms of this order. Decree sheet be
drawn accordingly. All pending applications are also disposed of in the
above terms.
PRATHIBA M. SINGH
JUDGE
JULY 14, 2022/dk/ms
