[Commons-Law] Star TV faces court battle over KBC

[prabhu ram]

>Economic Times

Star TV faces court battle over KBC 

Four Mumbai-based persons have moved a Delhi Court seeking stay on the
preliminary round for choosing participants for the much-publicised
Kaun Banega Crorepati-2 TV game show hosted by superstar Amitabh
Bachchan, claiming patent rights over the selection process adopted by
Star India Pvt Ltd.

Correa Nixon Henry, Pradhan Aditya Anil, Ubaae Ajay Ganesh and Ubale
Sangita Ajay (Co-patentees) filed a suit in the District Court here
under the Patents Act, 1970 seeking permanent injunction restraining
Star from infringing their registered patent and direction for
rendition of accounts.

The case filed on June 14 thrice came up for hearing before a vacation
court which refused to grant interim injunction (stay) to the
plaintiffs. On the last date of hearing on June 22, Star India filed
its reply terming the suit as vague and not maintainable.

It alleged the patent obtained by the plaintiffs was fraudulent and
prior anticipated by other foreign patents. It filed a separate
application under Section 104 of the Act challenging the validity
Plaintiffs' patant.

As the District Court did not have jurisdiction to decide a challenge
to the validity to a patent, Additional District Judge P K Saxena sent
the matter to the Delhi High Court.


Both the parties have been directed to appear before Delhi High Court
Registrar General V B Gupta tomorrow. "What we have challenged is the
process for selection of participants at the first entry level and not
the subsequent stages or the game (KBC-2) itself," Plaintiffs' counsel
Ajay Sahni and N K Bhardwaj said.

The first round for selection of participants to enter the contest for
the 'Hot Seat' of KBC-2 game show commencing next month was conducted
during June 6 and 20 and a further round was expected next month.

The Plaintiffs submitted that they were granted patent on January 20,
2005 with regard to an apparatus for playing a quiz game of skill
playable by remotely located participants simultaneously logged in and
competing with each other using an electrical or electronic network
for date exchange and a control system for establishing a virtual
universe.

The patent registration certificate grants to the plaintiffs the
exclusive right to prevent third parties from indulging in any Net
Related Interactive Quiz Game without the consent of the plaintiffs as
it would amount to infringement of their rights, they said in the
suit.

The plaintiffs, who gathered information about KBC-2 game show from
Star India Pvt Ltd website, submitted that a bare perusal of the
details mentioned on the defendant's website would make it obvious
that the process employed for selection of participants to enter the
'Hot Seat' was a complete violation of their patent rights.

Star India Pvt Ltd submitted in its written statement that the systems
used by KBC-2 were traditional systems of communication, which were
already in public domain and the plaintiffs could not claim
proprietary rights over such traditional systems.

"It is clear that the present suit has been filed merely to stall the
launch of KBC-2, tarnish the reputation of the defendant and a ploy to
extract some money...," Star said in its reply.