Facts of the case
Mr Sanjay Kumar Gupta and another (the Appellants) had filed an IP suit contending that Sony Pictures Network India and others (the Defendants) had infringed copyrights belonging to them and that they should be held liable for the same. According to the Appellants, they ran a quiz show by the name of ‘Jeeto Unlimited’ concept of which had been copied by the Defendants and used in their show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. Jeeto Unlimited is a quiz show wherein contestants are asked questions by answering which they can win prize money while being situated at their homes. A segment on the popular quiz based show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ was recently introduced wherein viewers could answer questions from their homes and stand a chance to win stipulated prize money. According to the Appellants, this part is their intellectual property which Sony has copied and thus infringed copyrights.
Issues Raised
There were two issues raised before the Court:
Submissions made by the Parties
The Appellants submitted that they had presented their idea of the show ‘Jeeto Unlimited’ to the Defendants, who made them sign a waiver absolving them of any liability in case of disclosure. The Appellants further stated that the rules of their show were also adopted by the Defendants and they were using them with certain modifications.
According to the Defendants, the Appellant had no copyright over the concept of ‘Jeeto Unlimited’ and also stated that though the two shows seemed similar; there were a lot of distinctions between the two. According to the Defendants, the contestant in their show is chosen who answers the question fastest and are physically present while playing the quiz show unlike ‘Jeeto Unlimited’ where the home viewers were selected on a lottery basis. In the Defendant’s show, the prize money won by the home viewers and the contestant is different whereas the concept of ‘Jeeto’ had the prize money split between the contestant and the home viewer who was selected on a lottery basis. The Defendants further stated that on their show the contestant is given with only one opportunity whereas Jeeto would eliminate the contestant on their second incorrect answer. Another point of distinction is that the Defendants’ show is pre-recorded whereas on Jeeto the contestant and home viewers played simultaneously.
Held
The Court dismissed the Appellant’s claim as they were not able to produce the alleged waiver form nor did they take efforts to call for it in Court. The Court noted that the media houses often sign such waivers before meetings to ensure that if any other publisher has similar content then the media house won’t be liable and thus the Appellants were aware of what they were getting into. The Delhi High Court placed reliance on the principles laid down in the matter of R.G. Ananad vs Deluxe Films by the Supreme Court, where the Court held that there cannot exist any copyrights for ideas, themes, plots, etc. The Court also relied on a witness testimony which clarified that viewer-host interaction was used in numerous shows before the concept of ‘Jeeto’ even existed and so the Court held that this was not a matter of copyright infringement.
Conclusion
Claiming to have had the original idea of a quiz show is long reach as quiz shows have been internationally popular for numerous years. The Delhi High Court simply reiterated what the Apex Court has laid down in the landmark judgment of R.G. Ananad vs Deluxe Films. Thus this is another proof that one cannot claim to have an idea and sue for copyrights infringement as ideas are not subject to copyrights.
