Samir Kasal, a novel personality in the field of sports entertainment conceptualized the format and novel features of an International Cricket League wherein famous retired cricketers would compete against each other ami

Decision of the Case As per Section 2(y) of Copyright Act, 1957, work means any of the following works namely: a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work; a cinematograph film; a sound recording. The concept claimed by the Plaintiff, as his original idea, does not fall in any of these definitions. Thoughts, without being expressed in a material form, print or writing, would not constitute a "literary work". The court viewed and concluded that parts of the concept already existed in the public domain for a long time and could not be considered as original ideas of the Plaintiff. The court said that the Plaintiff could not claim exclusive rights over ideas such as naming the teams using the words such as "Asia" and "World" or restrict the players from participating in the defendant's league. The court relied on the judgment of R.G. Anand v/s Delux films , in this the court stated that all the games of cricket would have some of the elements common or derived from the same concept so the burden would be on the Plaintiff to prove that his idea had some novelty which could be protected but the plaintiff failed to do so. As the Plaintiff's ideas already existed and were adopted from one form or other. The Plaintiff and Defendant number 1 had not prepared a proper document that could give rise to contractual obligations on part of the other defendants or third parties. So, it was concluded that there was no existence of the formation of a quasi-contract. The Court opined that the obligation of confidentiality could not continue indefinitely. It would further depend on the nature of the information to be kept confidential. The information related to organizing a league as per Plaintiff's concept cannot stop Defendant number 2 from holding league matches forever, especially when it was observed by the court that he was continuously involved in management of an IPL team. The Plaintiff was also at the fault that he failed to contact defendant number 2 between 2018 and 2020 to proceed with the proposal. It was also observed by the court that the Plaintiff was unable to explain the delay in approaching the court. The Court stated that no one can claim copyright on the game of cricket and there can be no copyright on the evolution of the game from five-day test matches to the recent format of T-20 cricket either. The court dismissed the Plaintiff's claim for monetary loss as the damage suffered by the Plaintiff would still be insignificant as compared to the Defendant if an interim injunction was granted against them. So he dismissed the applications filed by the Plaintiff. The court directed the league organizers to maintain clear accounts of their earnings and expenditure with respect to matches and file the same before the Court within one month after the completion of the tournament.