The Delhi High Court recently granted interim relief to radio broadcaster Mirchi in its copyright suit against entertainment and lifestyle platform MissMalini, pertaining to the unauthorized upload of clips from the 'What Women Want' talk show hosted by Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL), the owner of Mirchi FM, has alleged that Miss Malini Entertainment Private Limited (MEPL) breached their agreement by uploading clips from the talk show What Women Want on YouTube and Instagram. ENIL claims that MEPL obscured Mirchi's logos on the clips and replaced them with the MissMalini logo.

Mirchi asserted its exclusive ownership of all intellectual property rights related to the show and informed the Court that MEPL had been engaged for its promotion. According to Mirchi, there was an understanding that MEPL would share a preview of the content intended for upload on MissMalini’s platforms. However, Mirchi alleged that MEPL bypassed this requirement and posted the clips without approval.

Mirchi further contended that MEPL not only obscured the ‘Mirchi’ logo but also added the ‘MissMalini’ logo and credited the videos to ‘MissMalini Productions.’

After considering the arguments, Justice Mini Pushkarna, on December 20, granted an ex parte interim injunction in Mirchi’s favor. The Court directed MEPL to remove the disputed clips from YouTube and Instagram within 48 hours. The clips have since been taken down.

Additionally, the Court has restrained Miss Malini Entertainment Private Limited (MEPL) from using Mirchi's copyrighted material on any platform, including social media and multi-media, until the next hearing scheduled for May 13.  

Mirchi had earlier issued a cease-and-desist notice to MEPL and initiated a copyright strike on the disputed videos on YouTube. However, as some video clips remained accessible online, Mirchi sought relief from the Delhi High Court.  

Senior Advocate Abhishek Malhotra, assisted by Advocates Kartikay Dutta, Anukriti Trivedi, and Raghavi Shukla, represented Mirchi. Advocates Vedansh Anand and Sachin Saraswat appeared on behalf of the Central government, while Advocates Aditya Gupta and Asavari Jain represented Google.  

Counsel Nidhi Raman, along with Advocate Akash Mishra, appeared for the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications.