Amitabh Bachchan-Patent of Personality

Amitabh Bachchan the star of the century will now have a patent of his personality. The ‘Shahenshah’ of Bollywood has initiated the legal course of action towards this aim.

The Delhi High Court issued an order forbidding infringement of the Bollywood actor's personality rights, prohibiting anyone from using the name, likeness, voice, and other characteristics of the actor without his permission.

According to Bachchan's attorney, the actor may suffer financial and reputational losses because numerous websites and mobile applications are using his name, images, and voice to entice users.

In an effort to safeguard his personality rights, the celebrity has also requested a restraining order against publishers, T-shirt sellers, and various other companies.

Amitabh Bachchan-Patent of Personality

What are Personality Rights?

"Personality rights are the benefits enjoyed by celebrities whose likenesses, voices, signatures, or other characteristics have monetary value or the potential to sway public opinion.

A personality right that "protects his proprietary interest in the profitability of his public reputation and acknowledges the commercial value of a photograph or representation of a prominent person" is the right of publicity, in accordance with Supreme Court lawyer Tushar Agarwal.

He continued by saying that the essence of personality rights is that if a celebrity or well-known person feels that someone is exploiting one of his or her personality traits for profit without his or her consent, they can go to court to ask for restraining orders.

Another attorney claimed that after Hollywood actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones sued Hello! magazine, this right became more well-known.

Hollywood actors filed a lawsuit against Hello! after the magazine used their wedding photos in a publication. The actor couple had also given permission to another magazine to take pictures of their wedding.

The court declared that it would uphold the individual's right to privacy because it believed that Hello! magazine was influencing how they made a living.

The attorney continued by saying that few people have upheld personality rights

According to celebrity lawyer Zameer Nathani, superstar Rajnikanth had filed a lawsuit in his home country of India against the release of the movie Main Hoon Rajinikanth on the grounds that it would seriously harm his reputation, violate his rights to his name, and mislead the public.

Rajnikanth was given a temporary restraining order (interim injunction) by the court to prevent the film's release.

Abhinay Sharma, managing partner at the Delhi-based law firm ASL Partners, commented on the importance of the Delhi High court order in Bachchan's case by stating that the temporary order establishes the guidelines for the protection of the personality rights of well-known people.

According to Tushar Agarwal, India's laws and policies regarding personality or celebrity rights are still in their infancy.

What action can be taken if anybody uses Bachchan’s name, voice, signature etc?

If any person uses Bachchan’s name, voice, signature or anything related to him, that person will not only be liable to pay damages to the actor but will also be liable under the Contempt of Courts Act for punishment.