Delhi High Court Lists YouTuber Mohak Mangal's Plea To Transfer ANI's Copyright Suit Before IP Division

The Delhi High Court on Monday listed before a coordinate bench of the intellectual property (IP) division YouTuber Mohak Mangal's plea seeking transfer of the copyright and trademark infringement suit filed by Asian News International (ANI) against him before city's Patiala House Court to the High Court.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani listed the matter before a coordinate bench on Friday, after taking note of Rule 26 of the Delhi High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, 2022.

As per the Rule, where there are multiple proceedings relating to the same or related IPR matter, the Court can direct consolidation of proceedings.

This was after the Court heard Advocate Siddhant Kumar appearing for ANI on the objections taken by him initially that the transfer petition is required to be listed before a commercial appellate division of the High Court.

In the previous hearing, Kumar had referred to Section 15(5) of Commercial Courts Act and said that the petition should be filed before the commercial appellate division of the High Court and is not maintainable before the single bench.

Today, the Court noted that the matter pending before the patiala house court and a coordinate bench of the High Court both relate to the use of intellectual property of ANI.

“Rule 26 of IP Division Rules provides that a petition seeking consolidation or transfer of suits may be decided by the coordinate bench in the IP division,” it said.

“Since although the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner (Mangal) as well as Respondent no. 1 (ANI) do not dispute that neither the Commercial Courts Act nor the IP Division Rules denude the power of this Court under Section 24 of the CPC, in view of Rule 26 of IP Division Rules, since in view of the opinion of this Court, consolidation and transfer of matters are two sides of the same coin and conflicting ruling could be discordant, let this matter be listed, subject to the orders of the Chief Justice, before the concerned IP Division bench on Friday,” the Court ordered.

Notably, ANI's disparagement suit against Mangal was listed before Justice Jyoti Singh (IP Division) today which was adjourned to August end.

ANI had filed a defamation, disparagement and infringement suit before the Delhi High Court against Mangal and others over the YouTube video titled “Dear ANI”.

The suit also named comedian Kunal Kamra, AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair and unknown entities (john does) as defendants for sharing Mangal's video on their X Corp (formerly Twitter) handles.

On May 29, Mangal agreed to take down certain portions from his YouTube video which were offending as per the news agency.

ANI then filed a suit before the district court on June 02 impugning 10 videos posted by Mangal, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.

In his transfer plea, Mangal has claimed that six out of the ten videos impugned before the patiala house court are same videos that were already alleged to constitute copyright infringement before the High Court.

Title: MOHAK MANGAL v. ANI MEDIA PVT. LTD. AND ANR