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    SantaBanta.com files case against Boman Irani starrer for trademark infringement

    Synopsis

    While the owner of SantaBanta.com JD Ghai has sought monetary compensation, credits for the site in the movie and asked for the movie to be promoted on the site.

    ET Bureau
    NEW DELHI: The owners of humour and Bollywood news website Santa-Banta.com have sought to put a spanner in the works of a movie by the name Santa Banta Pvt Ltd, alleging unauthorised use of its registered trademark, even as the director of the film says his company has a licence on the name.

    The website had filed for an injunction in the Delhi High Court in 2013 against promoting and releasing the movie that has Boman Irani, Vir Das, Neha Dhupia and Lisa Hayden in lead roles. The court, however, has so far not granted an injunction.

    While the owner of SantaBanta.com JD Ghai has sought a licence fee, credits for the site in the movie and asked for the movie to be promoted on the site, director Akashdeep Sabir of Cinetek Telefilms said that his production house has made the movie under a valid licence.

    The director, who has earlier made movies such as Miss 420 in 1998 and Ghaath in 2000, said his company acquired the licence from Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd, claiming that this licence precedes the one owned by Ghai.

    “Why should we accede to any demands when we have made the movie under a valid licence?” asked Sabir. In its latest order on January 20, Justice Manmohan of the Delhi High Court appointed senior advocate JP Sengh as a mediator with consent of both the parties to settle the matter.

    Ghai said Cinetek had approached him indirectly through their representative, without divulging the actual user, in 2010 for licensing his trademark as a title of a forthcoming film. “At that time they were agreeing for credits and certain other conditions. However, before the licence fees could be agreed to, they ended the initial email exchange rather abruptly and did not get back with regard to the financials,” Ghai said in an email response to queries sent by ET.

    The case, he said, was filed in July 2013 after his legal counsels, engaged to provide global trademarks monitoring services to the company, informed him of the alleged infringement in June 2013.

    In a hearing in September 2013, in reply to a query by the court, the counsel for Cinetek Telefilms had said that the film was in post-production stage and unlikely to be released in the next three months. In an order in December 2013, the court said that the statement made earlier would continue till the next date of hearing.

    Since then, there has neither been a mention nor an adverse order on the matter in any subsequent order of the court. So it is unclear whether there is a stay on the movie.

    Ghai, however, said the undertaking by the lawyers of the defendants has been in effect for the past 15 months and the “court has not passed any adverse order till date setting aside the said undertaking”.

    Sabir insists there is no embargo on the movie and that he is free to release it. “I finished the film in 2014 and since then animation and other post-production work has been on. These just finished and we are now looking for a suitable week to release the movie over the next few months when there is not too much clutter of other movies,” said Sabir, choosing not to respond to other queries, saying the matter is sub judice.
    ( Originally published on Feb 05, 2015 )
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