Does reputation flow generationally? Delhi HC on Aaradhya Bachchan's lawsuit
The Delhi High Court on Thursday, August 13, asked whether the reputation attached to a family name flows down through generations, while hearing a lawsuit over "misleading" social media content about the daughter of actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Justice Anup J. Bhambhani posed the question during a hearing on the case, asking how far down the generations a family name's reputation would extend if treated akin to the reputation attached to a trademark.
Aaradhya Bachchan and her father, Abhishek Bachchan, filed the lawsuit in 2023, alleging YouTube videos published false content about the minor's health and private life.
During Thursday's hearing, Justice Bhambhani noted that trademark value and reputation are typically tied to a product or service, calling the case "somewhat contextually different" since it concerns a person.
He asked whether the reputation a surname carries because of a family's achievements and standing in a field could be treated as a trademark-like asset that passes generationally, and if so, to what extent. The court also asked whether publishing fake news, however "egregiously despicable," could amount to a violation of intellectual property rights.
Counsel for the plaintiffs argued that as long as goodwill remains intact, any attempt to spread false information that damages it must be prevented, noting that goodwill can fade over time but that in this case images of the entire family were being used. The lawyer also argued that fake news was being spread by invoking the Bachchan name.
A single-judge bench had restrained several YouTube channels on April 20, 2023, from publishing misleading content about Aaradhya Bachchan's health, holding that spreading misinformation about a child reflected "morbid perversity" and that Google could not permit such content to be disseminated.
The bench had said every child is entitled to honour and respect, and that misleading information about a child's health was "completely intolerable in law."
The matter is next scheduled to be heard in September.
