Bombay HC Stops Sports Authority of India from Using Unlicensed Songs of Phonograic Performance Ltd on ‘Horn OK Please’ Food Festival

In what could spell trouble for Delhi’s popular food festival – ‘Horn Ok Please’ – the Bombay High Court on Tuesday (November 12) in an interim order restrained the Sports Authority of India (SAI) from playing songs or music which is owned by the Phonograhic Performance. Limited (PPL) without prior license.

Notably, the Horn Ok Please festival will be held at SAI’s Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium in New Delhi on November 16 and 17.

A single bank of Judge Riyaz Chagla noted that the SAI has previously infringed on the PPL’s ​​rights by playing its recordings without obtaining a permit.

“I am of the prima facie view that the SAI is indulging in infringement of the copyright of the PPL in the sound recordings belonging to them, which requires an injunction. Moreover, unless SAI is restrained from playing sound recordings of the PPL without obtaining a license for the same After the said event which will take place on November 16 and 17, 2024, the SAI will again infringe PPL’s ​​copyright on the sound recordings,” the Supreme Court said in its order. The court was hearing an interim application filed by the PPL in a commercial lawsuit seeking an injunction against SAI.

The urgent ad-interim relief was sought on the grounds that SAI is organizing “Horn Ok Please” on November 16 and 17 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium, owned/managed/operated by SAI, which is evident from the websites of insider.in and Instagram social. platforms.

The PPL alleged that SAI was guilty of copyright infringement of sound recordings belonging to it at an earlier event on September 28 and 29 this year, where they played the sound recordings without obtaining any prior license. This event was also held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium in New Delhi, the report said.

In its submissions, the PPL pointed out that it sent a “cease and desist order” to the Audit Office on September 7 and November 8, calling on the defendant’s authority to cease infringing the plaintiff’s copyright.

The Supreme Court subsequently issued an interim order prohibiting SAI and its employees, licensees, third-party event management companies or any person acting on its behalf, pending the final disposition of the lawsuit, from “acting publicly or communicating in any way from the sound recordings of the songs authorized to PPL without obtaining non-exclusive public performance rights to sound recordings from PPL.

Justice Chagla, while passing the ad-interim order, noted that the SAI did not respond to the ‘cease and desist’ orders issued by the PPL. Therefore, it passed the interim injunction banning SAI from using PPL’s ​​music and sound recordings.

The case would be heard further on November 28.

Case Title: Phonographic Performance Limited vs Sports Authority of India (Interim Application (L) 34177 of 2024)

Counsel for the plaintiff: Advocates Amogh Singh, Asmant Nimbalkar, Neeraj Nawar, Mrunmayee Nagar and Anil Kumar Singh

Click here to read/download the order