Can reputation of a celebrity be inherited, asks HC

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court, which has recently become the preferred place to secure “personality rights”, has raised concerns over the expanding nature of such rights.While hearing a suit filed in 2023 over “misleading” YouTube content about the health and private life of Aradhya Bachchan, the minor daughter of actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the HC questioned whether a family’s reputation flows down generations, how far personality rights extend and whether even “egregiously despicable” fake news can violate intellectual property rights.“A certain last name has a reputation because of its eminence in a certain field of work. So, does that reputation, that you are couching as virtually as a trademark, flow down generationally? If so, up to what point?” Justice Anup J Bhambhani asked, flagging points that need to be examined in such cases.In 2023, a single-judge bench had restrained several YouTube channels from publishing misleading content on Aaradhya’s health, calling such misinformation about a child “morbid perversity” and “completely intolerable in law”, and saying every child is entitled to respect.– Abhinav Garg