HC restrains misuse of actor Oberoi’s name, image

New Delhi: Protectingthe “personality rights” of actor and entrepreneur Vivek Oberoi, the Delhi High Court has restrained several entities from misusing his name, voice and image for commercial or personal gain. In an interim order on a lawsuit by Oberoi, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela held that considering his “well-known, popular and well-accepted personality”, irreparable loss would be caused to him if no relief was given at this stage.

Oberoi has a “copyright” over his own personality, which includes his image, likeness, voice, name and signature, and his long standing career and stellar success in films clearly demonstrate his goodwill, reputation and acceptability, observed the court.

“Thus, the plaintiff, at this stage, has a right to protect his personality apart from all his attributes from unauthorised access by unscrupulous infringers, some of whom are arrayed as defendants in the suit,” the court concluded in the order passed on February 5.

The court therefore restrained several entities from violating Oberoi’s “personality/publicity rights” by misusing his name -- “Vivek Oberoi”, voice, image or other aspects of his persona that for any commercial or personal gain through the use of any technology including AI, deep fakes or face morphing. It also restrained the creation and sharing of any products, like t-shirts and posters, bearing his personality’s attributes.

The court directed the online platforms, including YouTube, Meta Platforms and X Corp, to take down the links of all offending articles within 72 hours.