Delhi High Court Restrains Azure Hospitality From Playing Phonographic Performance’s Songs Without License
Delhi High Court Restrains Azure Hospitality From Playing Phonographic Performance’s Songs Without License
The music company was represented by Khaitan & Co
The Delhi High Court has restrained Azure Hospitality Pvt Ltd from playing songs owned by Phonographic Performance Limited in their restaurants without a license.
Azure owns popular restaurants Mamagoto, Dhaba, Sly Granny and Fox Trot.
The decision affirmed Phonographic's entitlement to issue licenses for the copyrighted songs under Section 30 of the Copyright Act even though it was not a registered copyright society.
The court observed that Azure infringed copyright and must stop it, pending the final judgment. It considered that the to provide a license of its works was an inherent to a copyright owner under Section 30 and Section 33(1) could not override it.
The bench noted that Azure did not deny it was playing Phonographic’s songs in its premises. This meant admission of infringing the copyright.
Phonographic Performance Ltd was represented by senior counsels Rajiv Nayar and Chander M Lall.
The Khaitan & Co team comprised Ankur Sangal, Partner, Sucheta Roy, Principal Associate, Raghu Vinayak Sinha, Senior Associate and Shaurya Pandey, Associate.
