$~39

* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

+ CS(COMM) 1028/2024 with I.A. 45300/2024, I.A. 45301/2024, I.A.
45302/2024, I.A. 45303/2024 and I.A. 45304/2024
ANI MEDIA PVT LTD .....Plaintiff
Through: Mr. Sidhant Kumar, Mr. Akshit
Mago, Ms. Monyaa Chandok, Mr.
Om Batra and Ms. Anshika Saxena,
Advocates.
versus
OPEN AI INC & ANR.
.....Defendants
Through: Mr. Amit Sibal, Sr. Advocate with
Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor, Mr. Nirupam
Lodha, Mr. Madhav Khosla, Ms.
Moha Paranjpe, Mr. Gautam
Wadhwa, Ms. Malika Nandkedlyar,
Mr. Rajat Bector, Mr. Ankit Handa,
Mr. Darpan Sachdeva and Mr.
Saksham Dhingra, Advocates.

CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AMIT BANSAL
ORDER
% 19.11.2024
I.A. 45304/2024 (seeking exemption from filing typed copies of the
dim/legible documents)

1. Allowed, subject to the plaintiff filing legible copies of the annexures

within four (4) weeks from today.
2. The application stands disposed of.
I.A. 45303/2024 (exemption from pre-institution mediation)
3. As the present suit contemplates urgent interim relief, in light of the

CS(COMM) 1028/2024 Page 1 of 5

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 judgment of the Supreme Court in Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Krithi, 2023
SCC Online SC 1382, exemption from the requirement of pre-institution
mediation is granted.
4. The application stands disposed of.
I.A.45302/2024 (under Order XI Rule 1 (4) CPC)
5. The present application has been filed on behalf of the plaintiff
seeking leave to file additional documents under the Commercial Courts
Act, 2015.
6. The plaintiff is permitted to file additional documents in accordance
with the provisions of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 and the Delhi High
Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018.
7. Accordingly, the application is disposed of.
I.A. 45301/2024 (under Order XI Rules 1 (6), 2 and 5 CPC)
8. Issue notice.
9. Notice is accepted by Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor, counsel appearing on
behalf of the defendants.
10. List on 28th January, 2025.
CS(COMM) 1028/2024
11. Let the plaint be registered as a suit.
12. Issue summons.
13. Mr Sanjeev Kapoor, counsel appearing on behalf of the defendants
accepts summons and waives issuance of formal summons.
14. Mr. Amit Sibal, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the defendants
raises a preliminary objection vis-à-vis the maintainability of the suit on the
ground of territorial jurisdiction.
14.1 This aspect will be considered once the written statement is filed.

CS(COMM) 1028/2024 Page 2 of 5

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 15. The written statement(s) shall be filed by the defendants within thirty
days from the receipt of summons. Along with the written statement(s), the
defendants shall also file affidavits of admission/denial of the documents of
the plaintiff, without which the written statement(s) will not be taken on
record.
16. Liberty is given to the plaintiff to file replication(s), if any, within
thirty days from the receipt of the written statement(s). Along with the
replication(s) filed by the plaintiff, affidavit of admission/denial of the
documents filed by the defendants be filed by the plaintiff.
17. The parties shall file all original documents in support of their
respective claims along with their respective pleadings. In case parties are
placing reliance on a document which is not in their power and possession,
its detail and source shall be mentioned in the list of reliance, which shall
also be filed with the pleadings.
18. If any of the parties wish to seek inspection of documents, the same
shall be sought and given within the timelines.
19. List before the Court on 28th January, 2025.
I.A. 45300/2024 (under Order XXXIX Rule 1 and 2 CPC)
20. This application has been filed seeking following directions against
the defendants:
“a. Pass an ex-parte ad-interim injunction restraining the
Defendants, or any person acting for or on their behalf, either
directly or indirectly, from storing, publishing reproducing or in any
manner using, including through th ChatGPT model, the copyrighted
Plaintiff’s Works or any other original works of the Plaintiff.
b. Pass an ex-parte ad-interim order directing the defendants to
disable access of ChatGPT to Plaintiff’s Works published anywhere
by the Plaintiff or its subscribers.”

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 21. Issue Notice.
22. Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor, Advocate accepts notice on behalf of the
defendants.
23. Without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the defendants, Mr.
Sibal submits that the defendants have already blocklisted the plaintiff’s
domain ‘www.aninews.in’ in October, 2024. As a result, the said domain
will be excluded from the future training of the defendants’ software.
23.1 The statement is taken on record.
24. Let the reply be filed within four (4) weeks.
25. The present suit raises novel legal issues arising on account of recent
technological advancements. At this stage, some of the key issues that
warrant consideration include the following:
I. Whether the storage by the defendants of plaintiff’s data (which is in
the nature of news and is claimed to be protected under the Copyright
Act, 1957) for training its software i.e., ChatGPT, would amount to
infringement of plaintiff’s copyright.
II. Whether the use by the defendants of plaintiff’s copyrighted data in
order to generate responses for its users, would amount to
infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright.
III. Whether the defendants’ use of plaintiff’s copyrighted data qualifies
as ‘fair use’ in terms of Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
IV. Whether the Courts in India have jurisdiction to entertain the present
lawsuit considering that the servers of the defendants are located in
the United States of America.
26. Counsel for the parties inform the Court that this is the first of its kind

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 lawsuit filed in India against the defendants. Therefore, there is no
established jurisprudence on the aforesaid issues which arise for
consideration.
27. Mr. Sibal submits that there have been cases filed against the
defendants in the United States of America as well as other jurisdictions
raising similar issues. However, there is no authoritative ruling as on date.
28. Considering the range of issues involved in the present suit arising on
account of recent technological advancements vis-à-vis copyrights of
various copyright owners, this Court is of the view that two Amici Curiae be
appointed to assist the Court in this case, (i) a lawyer practicing in the field
of intellectual property including copyright and (ii) an academician in the
field of intellectual property including copyright.
29. Accordingly, the Mr Adarsh Ramanujan, Advocate and Dr Arul
George Scaria, Professor of Law, National Law School of India University
(NLSIU) are appointed as Amici Curiae in the present case to assist the
Court.
30. Let a complete set of plaint paper-book along with a copy of the
written statement to be filed be supplied to the Amici Curiae.
31. The Amici Curiae shall file their brief note of submissions before the
next date of hearing.
32. List on 28th January, 2025.

AMIT BANSAL, J
NOVEMBER 19, 2024
Vivek/-

CS(COMM) 1028/2024 Page 5 of 5

This is a digitally signed order.
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The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 27/11/2024 at 12:44:35