People in the public eye are most vulnerable to becoming a target of forgery when several entities start to use someone else’s personal attributes for their benefit. Celebrities are popular victims of this act. You might have seen some actor on a poster of some random product and they would have not even signed up for it.
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In a recent turn of events, actor Anil Kapoor has secured the legal rights of his personality attributes.
On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court ordered 16 entities to not infringe on actor’s personality rights. The lawsuit was filed by Anil’s manager quite some time back and addressed the misuse of his image, name, voice, likeness or other elements of his persona for monetary gains nonconsensually.
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Justice Prathiba Singh observed that “fame for a person can come with its own disadvantages” and quoted Kapoor’s case as an example of how “reputation and fame can transcend into damage for a person”. The HC noted, “Using a person’s name, voice, dialogue, and image in an illegal manner that too for commercial purposes cannot be permitted.”
“The celebrity’s right of endorsement could in fact be a major source of livelihood for the celebrity. Any form of misuse or commercial use of a celebrity name, voice, persona, or likeness has been shunned by SC in the seminal judgement called the Auto Shankar case.”
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After decades of service to showbiz, Anil Kapoor still remains one of the most celebrated actors of all time. The court further observed, “The celebrity also enjoys the right of privacy and does not wish that his or her image, or voice is portrayed in a dark manner as is being done on porn websites.”
Anil Kapoor has now expressed his thoughts on the court’s verdict.
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He said in a statement, “My intention is not to interfere with anyone’s freedom of expression or to penalise anyone. My intent was to seek protection of my personality rights and prevent any misuse for commercial gains particularly in the current scenario with rapid changes in technology and tools like artificial intelligence.”
Other than Anil Kapoor, actor Amitabh Bachchan has also secured his personality rights after a long legal battle.
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JusIP Law Firm reported earlier this year, “The Court granted an ad-interim ex-parte injunction in favour of Amitabh Bachchan, restraining defendants from infringing Amitabh Bachchan’s publicity or personality rights for any commercial or personal gain.”
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