CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has rejected a plea from actor Kajal Aggarwal for a direction to cooking and cosmetic oil major VVD & Sons Private Limited at Korukkupet, to stop exploiting her advertisement profiles in media and to pay Rs 2.5 crore towards damages for using the same beyond the period stipulated in the contract.
In her civil suit filed a couple of months ago, Kajal submitted that VVD & Sons had entered into an agreement in December 2008 as per which she subjected herself as an ambassador to the firm’s products for `3 lakh. As per the agreement, the defendant firm can use the profiles only for 12 months from December 2008 to December 2009. However, the company flouted the agreement and used the profiles beyond stipulated period.
Dismissing the suit, Justice T Ravindran held that the defendant company was the owner of the copyright of the commercial cinematography film as per Section 17 of the Copyright Act, 1957 and clause 4 of the agreement dated December 29, 2008. The term of the copyright in the commercial cinematography film is 60 years as stipulated under Sec. 26 of the Act. The defendant has been vested with the ownership and absolute right over the advertising material of Kajal’s profile to be used for the period prescribed under the Act,” the judge said and dismissed the suit.