Actor turned entrepreneur Vivek Oberoi has approached the Delhi High Court seeking legal protection of his personality rights, thus to avoid the rampant misuse of his identity across digital platforms. The suit has been filed through advocates Sana Raees Khan and Pranay Chitale.According to a report by LiveLaw, Oberoi has urged the court to restrain multiple defendants, including unidentified parties listed as John Doe, from unlawfully exploiting or misappropriating elements that are uniquely associated with him. This includes the unauthorized use of his name, voice, image and other identifiable aspects of his persona, without his consent or approval.The actor has also sought directions for the takedown of postcards, posters, videos and social media content that allegedly violate his rights. According to the suit, several individuals have been impersonating Oberoi online by creating fake profiles using his name and likeness, selling unlicensed merchandise, and generating and circulating AI-driven content. The plea further alleges that artificial intelligence and deepfake technology have been used to morph and superimpose his face to create objectionable visuals.The filing claims that while some of the disputed content is offensive, inappropriate or defamatory, other material has the potential to unfairly benefit from Oberoi’s identity by encroaching upon his market and commercial value.The suit filed by him states, “As only the Plaintiff has control over the commercial utilization of his personality, name, image, likeness and other characteristics that are uniquely identifiable and associated with the Plaintiff, no one can utilize and/or misappropriate and/or imitate any facet of the Plaintiff’s personality and/or exploit the same commercially in any manner whatsoever without the consent and/or express authorization of the Plaintiff.“Earlier the court has given protection of personality rights to many celebs – from Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kumar Sanu, Sunil Gavaskar, R Madhavan, Karan JoharJr NTR, Nagarjuna among others. A while ago, in an interview, Abhishek had spoken about why he decided to move to court for the protection of his and his family’s personality rights. He also urged many other celebs to do the same. He said in an interview with Peeping Moon, “Aishwarya and I moved to court about 3-4 years ago to protect our daughter. The internet can be a tricky place. Previously, people never responded because we were taught there is dignity in silence. But there are some things which are off limits as far as I’m concerned. Being personal with my family is off limits. If I have the ability, I will fight tooth and nail to protect them. There were some rather nasty, unnecessary things done on the internet vi sa vi my daughter. So, we moved to court, under the advice of the platforms. The Honorable court was extremely generous in seeing the validity in what we were requesting, she’s a minor. We won that case and it protected her rights.”He further added, “That then led to me thinking that the next person whose digital rights, appearance rights I’d like to protect would be my father’s. We won that two years ago and it was a landmark judgment. After which, many celebrities have started doing that. It is to ensure that people can misuse your likeness, your being, or my voice. With AI coming in, the lines are getting blurred today. These are steps necessary in today’s day and age and I would urge all public figures to consider it.“
