The Delhi High Court on 5 November restrained six US-based parties from pursuing copyright infringement proceedings against TV Today Network Limited before a US court over the use of weather-related footage in its news broadcasts, observing that the proceedings were prima facie vexatious and oppressive.
Justice Tejas Karia granted an interim anti-suit injunction against Global Weather Productions LLC and five others, who had instituted proceedings against TV Today before the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The Bench said:
“The US Suit is, prima facie, vexatious and oppressive: the Plaintiff has no US business, and the Subject Videos were prepared and published in India for Indian audiences. A prima facie case for an anti-suit injunction is thus established.”
The dispute concerns 42 videos published by TV Today on its YouTube channels between 2022 and 2025, which included footage of weather events and natural disasters outside India. The footage appeared in news reports featuring the broadcaster's narration, reporting, commentary, graphics and other editorial content.
In March this year, copyright complaints lodged by the defendants led YouTube to disable access to certain videos. TV Today subsequently filed counter-notifications seeking restoration of the content.
However, the defendants instituted proceedings before the US Court alleging copyright infringement and removal of copyright management information.
TV Today approached the Delhi High Court seeking, among other reliefs, protection against the copyright claims and an injunction restraining the defendants from continuing the US proceedings. It argued that the videos were prepared and published from India for Indian audiences, and that the footage depicted natural weather events that were not created by the defendants.
The broadcaster also submitted that the clips appeared only for a few seconds in news programmes to report prevailing weather conditions and constituted fair dealing under Section 52(1)(a)(iii) of the Copyright Act, 1957.
The Court observed that the videos were conceived, edited and uploaded from India, and that TV Today suffered the consequences of the copyright complaints within its jurisdiction.
It further noted that the broadcaster had no business in the US and that the relevant personnel, records and evidence were located in India.
Further, the Bench held that the jurisdiction clause in YouTube's standard-form counter-notification procedure could not, prima facie, shift the forum of a dispute arising entirely from acts in India. It therefore found that TV Today had established a prima facie case for an anti-suit injunction.
Accordingly, the High Court restrained the defendants from pursuing the US suit or instituting any proceedings before courts or authorities outside India concerning issues forming the subject matter of the present suit, until its final disposal.
It clarified that its observations were prima facie and did not express any final opinion on the merits of the suit.
For T.V. Today: Senior Advocates Gopal Jain & Hrishikesh Baruah with Advocates Shahrukh Ejaz, Utkarsh Dwivedi, Ganiul Hakim, Pragya Agarwal, Nishtha Sachan and Pratham Pandey
For Defendants: Advocates Aditya Gupta, Aishwarya Kane, Rohith Venkatesan & Sunidhi Agrahari for D-7; Advocate Chandrika Gupta for D-8