Delhi High Court: In a case of copyright infringement filed by Mebigo Labs Private Limited in relation to an audio book, the Single Judge Bench of Prathiba M. Singh directed Pocket FM to ensure that the subject audio book “Mossad: The Greatest Mission of the Israeli Secret Service” was not made available or communicated on its platform in any manner without authorization or license.
Background
Plaintiff operated an online platform called KuKu FM which was a content platform having audio books, audio CDs, podcasts, etc. This platform was available through the website www.kukufm.com and was also available on various application platforms such as Google Play Store and Apple Store.
Plaintiff claimed to have exclusive rights to and licenses of translations/audio adaptation of various books. The present case was related to the Hindi translation of the book “Mossad: The Greatest Mission of the Israeli Secret Service” authored by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal (Subject Audio Book). Plaintiff further claimed that it entered into a Publisher Assignment Agreement with Defendant 2 for the license of the Subject Audio Book.
Submissions on behalf of the Plaintiff
Plaintiff stated that Defendant 1 had a platform known as Pocket FM which provided services almost identical to the plaintiff’s online platform, KuKu FM and had made available the Subject Audio Book on their platform, without authorization from the plaintiff. Therefore, plaintiff submitted that Defendant 1 had violated the exclusive copyrights of the plaintiff regarding the Subject Audio Book.
Submissions on behalf of the Defendants
Counsel for the Defendants submitted that the defendants had removed infringing copy of the Subject Audio Book from their platform, Pocket FM did not intend to upload the same. Further, the Counsel stated that the defendants would make sure that the Subject Audio Book was not uploaded even in future.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court opined that since Defendant 1 had removed infringing copy from its Pocket FM platform and had undertaken not to publish the same in future, therefore, the present application could be disposed of by accepting the statement made by the Defendant 1.
The Court directed that Defendant 1 should ensure that the Subject Audio Book was not made available on Defendant 1’s platform Pocket FM or communicated in any manner by Defendant 1, without authorization or license, during the pendency of the present suit or during the term of copyright of the said book, whichever was earlier.
The Court also noted that a connected suit between the same parties, Pocket FM (P) Ltd. v. Mebigo Labs (P) Ltd., CS (COMM) 319 of 2022, was also pending and since the Counsel for the parties submitted that the parties were willing to explore the possibility of an amicable resolution of the disputes between them, the Court referred the parties to the Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre.
The matter would next be listed on 10-02-2023.
[Mebigo Labs (P) Ltd. v. Pocket FM (P) Ltd., 2022 SCC OnLine Del 4077, decided on 24-11-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Plaintiff: Senior Advocate Sunil Dalal;
Advocate Aditya Narayan Mahajan;
Advocate Aneesh Sadhwani;
Advocate Jatin Kumar;
Advocate Shanul Kadian;
Advocate Manisha Saroha;
Advocate Pratibha;
For the Defendant(s): Advocate Pravin Anand;
Advocate Shantanu Sahay;
Advocate Imon Roy.
