The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice in a case filed by the well-known storytelling platform "Humans of Bombay" (HOB) against the web portal "People of India" (POI), seeking to stop the latter from stealing its "unique format of storytelling" and making it available to the public.
In the Humans of Bombay Stories Private Ltd.'s appeal for interim relief, a single-judge panel of Justice Prathiba Singh gave notice to the defendant, "POI Social Media Private Ltd," while noting that the HC will hear the application on the next hearing date.
In Humans of Bombay's primary lawsuit, where the High Court also issued summonses, the application for temporary relief has been submitted. The case will be heard next on October 11.
The advocate representing Humans of Bombay claimed that the defendant had launched People of India, a similar portal or service with the same material. He claimed the accused had copied pictures and videos from the Humans Of Bombay's site and used them on its platform.
The advocate cited a comparison table of some of the photographs in the application and said that it would demonstrate how exactly the defendant had copied the business model and, in some cases, the actual tales.
"Perusal of the same would show that there is substantial imitation and in some cases, photos are identical," the HC said after reviewing the comparing table.
According to the plea filed, "...the similarities between the Infringing Content and the Plaintiff's content not only constitutes an infringement of the copyright owned by the Plaintiff but also passing off and unfair competition, as the Defendants have, evidently, knowingly and deliberately published content that is identical or substantially similar to the popular Content comprised of Plaintiffs Works in an attempt to ride on the goodwill that the Plaintiff has painstakingly built."
The application requests, among other things, that People Of India be ordered to remove all of Humans Of Bombay's work that the People Of India has either directly or indirectly produced.
According to the application, the defendant, People Of India, violated the copyright of videos posted to Humans Of Bombay's YouTube and Instagram accounts. The application claims that People Of India appropriated Humans Of Bombay's distinctive storytelling format without permission and illegally adapted Humans Of Bombay's "literary work" to produce duplicate cinematograph films.
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