BLUEBERRY BOOKS Vs. GOOGLE INDIA PVT. LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A plaintiff prefers this interlocutory appeal aggrieved by the order of a learned single judge, whereby he accepted the application of some defendants (Defendant No. 1 filed IA No. 7706 of 2012, hereafter called "Google India", IA 7707 of 2012 filed by third Defendant, Research in Motion India Pvt. Ltd. ('RIMPL') and IA No. 13852 of 2012 - by the tenth defendant, hereafter "Amazon") and directed that they should be deleted from the array of parties, in a copyright infringement suit. The plaintiff is hereby referred to as "Blueberry".

(2.) The suit alleged that in 2003, Blueberry published books series titled '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. Blueberry said that the stories contained in the books were its original literary and artistic works protected under the Copyright Act ('the Act'). The books were released in 2003, and supplied to several schools and retailed in several book fairs. They were reprinted in 2005 and widely circulated. In 2010, they were published afresh in a more contemporary version; some characters in the stories were changed and the caricature designs modified with modern background, clothing etc. The above four stories were included in Moral Stories Part -II and were widely circulated through book exhibitions, book fairs and even sold in the international market, including South East Asia, Africa and Middle East.

(3.) The suit alleged that in February 2012, Blueberry discovered that the above four stories were made available by the Defendants for their users through internet applications across several platforms and websites. Those mobile phones, tablets, etc. that run on various Android, BlackBerry, Apple and Windows based platforms. They included devices manufactured by Apple, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Blackberry, Nokia, HTC, etc. Those applications operate and are available on different platforms i.e. Android Market now known as Google Play, Blackberry Applications, APPLE iTunes and Microsoft on Windows Phone. The applications appear to have been designed by the eleventh Defendant titled 'Story Time for Kids'. It was alleged that all the stories were copied word to word with the caricatures, images, designing and the text inserted in the form of voice -over. The stories were translated into English, French, Italian, Chinese etc.