New Delhi, The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of entrepreneur and smart wearable firm Boat co-founder Aman Gupta, restraining third parties from unauthorised use or exploitation of his name, image, voice, and other attributes, including for AI-generated content.
In an interim order passed on May 7 on the Shark Tank judge’s lawsuit, Justice Tushar Gedela observed that in a short span of his career, Gupta has achieved milestones that entrenched him in the industry, and certain entities were exploiting his name, voice, persona, slogans, as well as registered trademarks, which belong to him exclusively.
The court directed the online platforms, like Meta and Google, to take down the content flagged in the lawsuit and also disclose the details of the alleged offenders.
Gupta, in his lawsuit, said third parties were violating his personality rights by using the attributes of his persona for selling merchandise bearing his catchphrases, deploying AI-based chatbots that impersonate him, listing events falsely portraying him as a guest, and circulating pornographic links and GIFs.
He also alleged impersonation by users on Instagram and the publication of his purported contact details.
“It is found necessary, at this stage, to pass the necessary following directions: Defendant nos.1, 6 to 45… are restrained from misusing or exploiting the plaintiff’s name, likeness, image, voice, photos, videos, GIF, contact details, or any aspect of the plaintiff’s persona, without express written authorisation, including through AI, deepfake technology, or any medium, resulting in infringement of the plaintiff’s personality and publicity rights,” the court ordered.
It also directed the defendants not to infringe on Gupta’s registered trademark in his catchphrases.
Several public figures, like actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Salman Khan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shamani, and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, have previously approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. The high court granted them interim relief.
Recently, the high court also protected the personality rights of cricketer Gautam Gambhir and actors Sonakshi Sinha, Vivek Oberoi, Allu Arjun, and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor by granting interim relief.
