BLUEBERRY BOOKS Vs. GOOGLE INDIA PVT. LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IA Nos. 7706-07 of 2012 (Order I Rule 10 CPC)

(2.) The background to these applications is that the aforementioned suit has been filed by M/s Blueberry Books, Plaintiff No.1, Mr. Ashish Gupta, Plaintiff No.2 and Mr. Jatin Mehta, Plaintiff No.3, all at New Delhi for a permanent injunction restraining the Defendants from infringing the copyright of the Plaintiffs in its stories (i) The Lazy Penguin; (ii) How The Rainbow Was Formed; (iii) The Greedy Fisherman and (iv) The Flower Goes For A Walk.

(3.) It is stated that in 2003, the Plaintiffs published a series of books under the name 'Moral Stories' Parts-I, II and III each containing four stories. Part-I contained the stories (i) Careless Tanu; (ii) The Merchant Learns A Lesson; (iii) Sejal's Gift for Soni and (iv) Selfish Monu. Part-II contained the stories (i) The Greedy Fisherman; (ii) A Flower Went for a Walk; (iii) How The Rainbow Was Formed and (iv) Two Good Friends and Part-III contained the stories (i) The Cunning Jackal; (ii) The Lazy Penguin; (iii) The Wicked Cub and (iv) Harry and Bob. It is stated that these stories contained in the aforementioned books are original literary and artistic works of the Plaintiffs and are protected under the Copyright Act, 1957 ('CA'). The books were released in 2003, supplied to a large number of schools and also sold in several book fairs. In 2005, they were reprinted and circulated widely. In 2010, the stories were published afresh, some of the characters in the stories were changed and the designs of caricature were modified to show modern background, clothing etc. The above four stories were included in Moral Stories Part-II and were also widely circulated through book exhibitions, book fairs and even sold in the international market, including South East Asia, Africa and Middle East.