Jahanvi Agarwal
In a case alleging copyright infringement brought by the storytelling platform “Humans of Bombay,” the Delhi High Court has summoned an Instagram account with the name “People of India.”
‘People of India’ was also issued notice by Justice Prathiba M Singh on the interim relief application made by ‘Humans of Bombay’ to prevent the former from exploiting its copyrighted content.
The Court ordered that:
“In this view of the matter, issue notice to the Defendants. In addition, intimation be issued by the Plaintiff’s counsel through e-mail… Notice be also issued by the Registry through e-mail to the Defendants that on the next date of hearing, the interim application shall be considered for ad interim relief.”
A lot of the subjects who were being interviewed by the People of India are based in Delhi, according to the counsel for the Humans of Bombay; therefore, the High Court has jurisdiction to hear the suit.
On October 11, Justice Singh set the issue for hearing and ordered that a corresponding affidavit be filed with the court within a week.
Humans of Bombay approached the High Court stating that its content, literary works, materials, films and creative work published on its website as well as its Instagram handle and YouTube channel are being replicated by ‘People of India’.
They claim that they perform in-depth research and approaches a variety of subjects who are interested in sharing their life stories. The aforementioned stories are afterward turned into audio-visual pieces and posted on the website and the aforementioned channels.
According to the information given in court, People of India has entirely replicated Humans of Bombay’s business strategy and is dealing with the same matters.
Justice Singh noted that prima facie, there is substantial imitation and, in some cases, the images are identical or imitative.
Therefore, the Court issued notices and summons on the suit.
Case Name: Humans of Bombay Stories Pvt Ltd v. POI Social Media Pvt Ltd
Diary Number: 646/2023
Bench: Justice Prathiba M Singh