The Channel Corporation herein after referred as Plaintiff entered into an Audio Rights Agreement with ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC, which was the organizer of ICC Men's World Cup, 2019, an event organized every four
CS Professional · Intellectual Property Rights - Laws and Practices · PYQS · June 2025
The Channel Corporation herein after referred as Plaintiff entered into an Audio Rights Agreement with ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC, which was the organizer of ICC Men's World Cup, 2019, an event organized every four years and whose edition began on May 30th, 2019 and concluded on July 14th, 2019. Under the mentioned agreement, the Plaintiff has the exclusive right to exploit the Audio Rights in relation to the matches and warm up matches being held under the stated ICC tournament and the right to negotiate and conclude the license agreements with sub-licensees. The Plaintiff has the following Rights: Transmit audio coverage of Matches and warm-up matches (or any adapted, altered or edited version thereof, and including comment, commentary, interviews and/or associated data) whether live, delayed, highlights or report in all languages via any delivery system now known or hereafter developed which is capable of transmitting or making available audio material for reception anywhere in the world, including via analogue and/or digital radio broadcasts, audio streaming/broadcasts to mobile phones, audio transmission on a digital TV channel (provided such transmission is accompanied only by basic scoring graphics and does not contain and ICC Marks). Stream such audio coverage via the internet and/or simulcast radio broadcasts via an audio internet stream, and/or make such audio content available on demand, including the provision of downloadable audio content commonly called podcast. Transmit or broadcast resulting from the exercise of the Audio Rights, by Private FM Radio Stations within and throughout India, after obtaining the necessary rights, clearances licenses and permission in relation to such broadcast subject to the Indian law which permit such live broadcast of cricket events on Private FM Radio Stations. Exclusive right to exploit the Audio Rights and the right to negotiate and conclude the license agreements with sub-licensees. The plaintiff came to know that the defendant who are (URLs/websites, private radio platform operators ISP (Internet Service Providers)/TSPs (Telecom Service Providers) are also broadcasting deferred update pertaining to ICC Event. An Injunction suit is filed by the plaintiff. Whether defendant's act amounts to infringement? Explain with the help of decided case(s).
Answer & Explanation:
The Hon'ble Delhi High Court laid down the principle in Star India Pvt. Ltd. v Piyush Agarwal, 2013 (54) PTC 222 (Del), which says that any person, wishing to gratuitously relay ball-by-ball or minute-by-minute score update or match alerts without a license, can do so, provided a time lag of 15 minutes is maintained in transmitting such updates. The court observed: The right to use information emanating from cricket matches cannot be recognized as a separate copyright. As under Section 16 of the Copyright Act, except for the specified copyrights, there cannot exist any right or copyright in any other work. As long as the Respondents are not copying in the original audio or visual recording of the match and are only using the information relating to the match, there is no bar on the Respondents to disseminate the information for commercial purposes after two minutes of first broadcast by Star India. This 15-minute time lag principle was also upheld by the Supreme Court vide its order dated 30th September, 2013 in Star India Pvt. Ltd. v. Akuate Internet Services Pvt. Ltd., SLP (C) No. 29633 of 2013. The case also finds mention of the Hot-News Doctrine. The court, considering the proximity of the sports news aired and the impact of copyright exploitation on competition, ruled that there would be no violation on the part of the defendant because outdated news holds no relevance. In this case, the doctrine of "Hot News" was dismissed, and attention was redirected to "principles of fair use and unjust enrichment".
Topics: Copyright
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