‘Can’t turn a blind eye’: Delhi HC protects Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s name, initials, persona

Justice Tejas Karia also restrained the entities from exploiting or misappropriating her name and acronym ‘ARB’, image and persona for any commercial or personal gain, without her consent and authorisation.

It also restrained them from creating, sharing, disseminating any product — including merchandise or digital content — through the use of any technology, “including but not limited to Artificial Intelligence, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deepfakes, Face Morphing, on any medium and format”.

Justice Karia, hearing a suit by Rai Bachchan on September 9, had orally said it would pass orders.

The court also issued summons to nine infringing entities that Rai Bachchan made parties in her suit, which include websites and online marketplaces selling merchandise; a chatbot where users can interact with AI characters “that are designed to facilitate and engage in personalised conversations with inappropriate innuendos related” to Rai Bachchan; and YouTube channels which feature AI-generated deepfake videos of her.

Noting that such infringement is causing Rai Bachchan not just financial detriment but also “harming her dignity, reputation and goodwill,” Justice Karia held that she had made out a prima facie case in her favour for an ex-parte injunction.

Justice Karia, while granting the injunction and ordering takedowns of websites infringing on her personality rights, reasoned, “Personality rights can be located in the individuals’ autonomy to permit or deny the exploitation of the likeness of other attributes of their personality. When the identity of a famous personality is used without their consent or authorisation, it may not only lead to commercial detriment to the individual concerned but also impact their right to live with dignity.”

“In other words, the unauthorised exploitation of the attributes of an individual’s personality may have two facets – first, violation of their right to protect their personality attributes from being commercially exploited; and second, violation of their right to privacy, which in turn leads to undermining their right to live with dignity. The courts, in such cases of unauthorised exploitation of one’s personality rights, cannot turn a blind eye and shall protect the aggrieved parties to avert any harm to them resulting from the said unauthorised exploitation,” it said.