Introduction
The right to one's own personality also known as the right to publicity is becoming a much more discussed issue in the past years. This has become so mostly owing to disputes involving celebrities, persons of public interest, and influencers. It is the ability of a person to control and protect themselves and their image, name, impression and everything else that may relate to recognition about themselves from the unauthorized commercial use by someone else. Although this right is not expressly given in India, the judicial precedents have recognized this right through the trademarks law and the right to privacy.
The case in point is about Ashneer Grover. He has recently been in the limelight for the tussle between Ashneer Grover and Bharatpe. Most of these tussles ultimately resolve into the clash between trademarks of personality rights and trademark law. This blog covers various notions of personality rights, their relations with trademark law in India, and the situation that led to their treatment with reference to the case of Ashneer Grover.
Understanding Personality Rights in India
The statutory legislation relates in no simple ways to the rights of the person because the rights can be said to have more or less been recognized under any category of rights.
- Right of publicity: This right allows an individual to have a say in how the commercial use is derived from his or her identity, including names, images, voice, and likeness.
- Right of privacy: It prevents and protects the unconsented commercial exploitation of one's persona.
The rights have no clear legislative definition under the laws of India, but they have been recognized within different legal frameworks, like
Trademark Law - covering the names, images, and related identification of public figures as subject to unauthorized use as trademarks.
Right to Privacy - as recognized and interpreted under Article 21 of the Constitution, a fundamental right from the case K.S. Puttaswamy versus Union of India (2017)1.
Judicial Precedents - Recognition of the proprietorial rights of the person by courts in a good number of celebrity cases.
Personality Rights and Trademark Law in India
Indian trademark law, as laid down in the Trademarks Act 1999, plays a crucial role in the safeguarding of personality rights. In Section 2(1)(m) of the Act defines the term 'mark,' and it covers all names, signatures, anything that can be registered as a trademark, and other representations, literary or graphic. Most of the public figures already have trademark registration for their names, images or chants to prevent their commercial misuse.
Key Provisions of the Trademarks Act Relating to the Right of Individuality:
- Section 14: Prohibits registration of trademark containing the name or likeness of living persons without their consent.
- Section 11(2): Precludes registration of marks that are likely to deceive or cause confusion, including those that take advantage of a public figure's identity.
- Section 29: The issue of trademark infringement should be addressed, which could result from a party's use of a name or a likeness that closely resembles the registered trademark.
Public figures, which can include actresses, politicians, and corporate leaders, use trademark law more in order to protect their Identities. Nevertheless, often the misuse of personality rights is concomitant with walking the fine line that online publicity and commercial exploitation have drawn for the most expressive people.
The Ashneer Grover Case: A Personality Rights Perspective
Ashneer Grover has now become an established public persona in India as co-founder of BharatPe and, more recently, as one of the sharks on the popular reality show Shark Tank India. He was always an outspoken personality with great business acumen but was known to attract as much praise as contempt. In the last couple of months, he has ended up in controversies and legal battles because he has been embroiled in controversies primarily stemming from his fallout with BharatPe, where he faced allegations of financial misconduct and misappropriation of funds, leading to his resignation. He later objected to the claimed unauthorized use of his name and persona by BharatPe in promotional materials concerned with the commercialization of his identity, which has had wider implications for his personality rights.
Major Questions of the Ashneer Grover Case:
- Appropriation of Grover's Name and Likeness Grover's name and likeness appear to be misused by private and other groups and individuals in inappropriate manners for individual and/or business purposes without depriving Grover of any meaningful powers over his name and likeness.
- Trademark Registration: As is the case with most celebrities, Grover allegedly ensured that his name and image were registered through trademark registration. This is because no one should be allowed to use his identity to deceive other people or gain from his good name.
- Free Speech v Commercial Exploitation Balancing Free Speech and Commercial Exploitation Being a public figure, Grover's identity is subject to the court of public opinion and comment. In this lies ambiguity on the line that separates the legitimate criticism of his identity with the exploitation of identity for profit-this is likely to put the personality rights in conflict with free speech.
- Invasion of privacy: Apart from the problems related to trademark abuse, Grover has been charged with other problems of invasion of privacy that make his legal position concerning his personality rights quite complicated.
Judicial Precedents on Personality Rights in India
Some of the landmark judgments in India have molded legality regarding personality rights. The judgments have provided insight into how various courts resolve the concerns of individual rights with business interests and public expressions.
- Titan Industries Ltd. v. M/S Ramkumar Jewellers (2012)2:
The case concerns the right to put to use the names and photographs of Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan for advertising purposes without their consent as held by the Delhi High Court against the respondent. The court therefore held that there had to be explicit permission for commercial gains while stating that personality rights resided in actors.
- D.M. Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. vs. Baby Gift House (2010)3:
Delhi High Court restrained the defendant from selling dolls resembling Daler Mehndi's persona and thereby upheld the personality rights of a public figure in a case related to popular Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi.
Challenges in Enforcing Personality Rights under Trademark Laws
Although personality rights are recognized in India, enforcement through trademark law comes with its set of problems:
- Uncodified law. Indian law does not define personality rights and leaves the same to judicial interpretation by precedent and judication. It has created uncertainty in enforcement and protection.
- There is a tension between free speech and Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Whereas personality rights very lightly intertwine with free speech and expression, it assumes that character rights must never interfere with a legitimate domain of public discourse or satire.
- Misuse cannot be easily proved: It is very difficult to prove misuse of a persona, particularly when it has been used as satire, parody, or as transformative use. Such use requires that the courts be highly scrutinizing about the intent and impact.
- Jurisdictional Overreach: Digital media oftentimes commit abuse of personality rights worldwide. For Indian courts to deal with a transnational infringement, it indeed is a gruelling task - especially in cyberspace.
Lessons from the Ashneer Grover Case
This underlines that the case of Ashneer Grover depicts a sort of heightened relevance of personality rights in the new digital age. Public personalities such as Grover had been subjected to the conflict that arose between holding one's identity intact yet being obliged to put out the public persona. From the case:
- Proactive Trade Mark Registration: Public figures should take proactive steps in registering their names, images, and slogans as trademarks to ensure the protection of the rights of personality.
- Unauthorized usage monitoring: The online as well as offline systems need to be constantly monitored for any case of unauthorized usage, which needs to be countered.
- Legal Redress: The litigation proved to be a deterrent in the case of Grover and a reminder to others that consent plays a defining role in such contexts.
- Awareness and Education: Personality rights awareness will make the public figure as well as the general public respect the identity of the person.
Indeed, personality rights under trademark laws in India have been an evolving field of law and have been further defined and shaped by judicial precedents as well as by the challenges presented by the dawn of the digital age. Ashneer Grover has achieved a balance where protection is offered against a public figure for unauthorized exploitation of identity with expression plus legitimate public interest.
With the announcement of celebrity culture and influence-driven economies in India, recognition and enforcement would inevitably work big toward making personality rights more relevant. Therefore, asserting better statutory frameworks and public knowledge is important in its pursuit of letting one control one's persona from getting abused in an increasingly connected world.
Tags/Keywords associated with the blog- Personality Rights in India, Ashneer Grover Case, Trademark Law, Right to Publicity, Right of Privacy, Unauthorized Identity Use, Indian Legal Precedents, Celebrity Personality Rights, Digital Age Identity Rights, Bharatpe Controversy, Public Figure Trademark Laws.
References-
https://naiknaik.com/category/intellectual-property/
Footnotes
1. (2017) 10 SCC 1, 629
2. Titan Industries Ltd. vs. Ramkumar Jewellers (26.04.2012 - DELHC) : MANU/DE/2902/2012
3. D.M. Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. vs. Baby Gift House and Ors. (29.04.2010 - DELHC) : MANU/DE/2043/2010
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