The Delhi High Court protected Sonakshi Sinha’s personality rights, barring unauthorized use of her image, voice or likeness by platforms including AI chatbots, prohibiting merchandise sales, and directing removal of infringing links within 36 hours.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has safeguarded Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha’s personality rights by prohibiting several platforms, including AI chatbots, from using her image, voice or any other personal attributes without authorization.
Justice Jyoti Singh also barred the sale of merchandise bearing her name or image without consent and prevented parties from exploiting her goodwill and reputation for commercial gain.
The court ordered the infringing defendants to remove weblinks within 36 hours.
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In an interim order dated March 20, arising from Sinha’s suit, the court affirmed her right to protect her name, likeness and all other facets of her persona. It observed that no third party may deploy these attributes without her permission.
Sinha alleged that two US-based platforms had launched multiple chatbots impersonating her and producing lewd and obscene material. She also stated that various other entities, some unidentified, were using her name, image, voice and likeness for unauthorised commercial and impermissible non-commercial purposes by falsely implying association with or endorsement by her.
The court said, at the prima facie stage, that the defendants had unlawfully exploited elements of Sinha’s persona for unjustified commercial benefit without her consent. It found that hosting images showing inappropriate clothing and obscene content generated through AI tools inflicted irreparable harm on her reputation, and that unauthorised use of her name to market inferior goods could damage her goodwill.
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The judgment emphasised that a celebrity’s endorsement rights are a key source of livelihood and cannot be destroyed by allowing unlawful dissemination such as selling merchandise or other items bearing their likeness without lawful authorization.
The court ordered,
“Defendants No. 1 to 17, including John Does, are restrained from using and/or in any manner directly or indirectly, exploiting or misappropriating Plaintiff’s: (i) name Sonakshi Sinha; (ii) image; (iii) voice; and (iv) likeness and/or any other attribute of her persona, without her authorisation or consent, for any commercial and/or personal gain, through the use of technology, including but not limited to Artificial Intelligence, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deepfakes, AI Chatbots, Face Morphing and/or any other mediums and formats, amounting to violation of Plaintiff’s personality/publicity rights,”
The court further said,
“Defendants are also restrained from selling their merchandise and/or other articles using the elements and attributes of Plaintiff’s persona, which are exclusively identified with her and/or from passing off their goods by encashing on the goodwill and reputation of the Plaintiff and misrepresenting to the public,”
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