Bollywood flick Satyagraha faces dispute over its Movie Title

Soon to be released Bollywood flick Satyagraha starring Amitabh Bachhan and Ajay Devgn has run into troubled waters due to dispute regarding ownership of the film title. Usually, any producer may register a title with various film associations which function as registered societies. The registration is valid for a two year period, after which the owner has to forego the registration and the title may be used by someone else. In the present case, the plaintiff, Rajesh Mishra of Narayani Productions has claimed that he had registered the movie title Satyagraha with the Indian film and TV Producers Council. Yet the defendant, Prakash Jha Productions went ahead and used the title without obtaining permission from the plaintffs. It was submitted that this unauthorised use would cause the plaintiff irreparable harm unless the plaintiff's were suitably compensated. The Indian film and TV Producers Council has also been made a respondent to the suit.

As per news reports, the plaintiff has claimed copyright in the title. However, movie titles have been registered in India since long as trademarks only. One of the most settled principles of Indian copyright jurisprudence is that there is "no copyright in film titles". Therefore, a production house actually claiming copyright over a film title strikes to me as rather odd. The present story carried by Outlook India has most likely been misreported, and it wouldn't be the first time the media has gotten its concepts of trademarks and copyrights wrong. We carried a post on this menace some time ago.

Regarding copyrightability of movie titles, the Delhi HC previously held that title of any copyrighted work cannot enjoy protection under the Copyright Act. It was observed that in case of a single copyrighted work, the title must have acquired a secondary meaning to qualify as registrable trademark; and titles of series of films enjoy standard trademark protection. Shamnad Basheer in this post brought to us an analysis by Manisha Singh of LexOrbis on the issue of copyrightability of film titles with respect to the same decision. 

Furthermore, the plaintiifs allege that the title had been snatched by resorting to cheating and criminal breach of trust and reserved their rights to also file criminal cases against both respondents. Justice Kathawala of the Bombay HC heard the matter and asked the Council to appear before the Court.