No SMS-ing cricket scores, Now !
Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
The Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained cellphone service providers across the country from SMS-ing cricket scores of the India-Pakistan one-day series to subscribers. The next ODI is in Rawalpindi on February 11.
The interim injunction followed a petition by Marksman Marketing Services, which claimed that Pakistani company Vectracom had global rights for the SMS updates and no service had the rights as its Indian representative. R.Sivaraman, counsel for Chennai-based Marksman Marketing, said service providers would be also barred from relaying SMS alerts sent by news channels or websites.
Giving the interim order on a civil suit filed by the Chennai-based Marksman Marketing Services Pvt Ltd (MMSP) which has listed about 18 big mobile phone companies and websites as respondents, Justice M Chockalingam said that the court was of the "considered opinion that it is a fit case for an adinterim injunction for four weeks" as the "balance of convenience" was in the applicant's favour. The mobile operators cited as respondents in the petition and against whom the court has passed restraining orders included Bharati TeleVenture Limited (Airtel), BSNL, Reliance Infocom, Hutchinson Essar Limited, Gujarat-based Idea Cellular, Aircel Cellular, Mohali-based Spice Telecom in Punjab, Tata Indicom, Bangalore-based On Mobile Asia Pacific Pvt Ltd and IMI Mobile of Hyderabad
As per these agreements, all mobile operators and websites operating in India should obtain Marksman's permission for transmitting SMS information on the Indo-Pak ODIs since the company was the "only exclusive rights holder".
Any violation of these SMS rights by a telecom operator "constitutes an infringement of the intellectual property rights of the Pakistan Cricket Board," the petitioner Shankar Subramanian, managing director of MMSP contended.
Pointing out that several mobile phone companies and websites had transmitted SMS messages to their subscribers during the recently concluded India-Pakistan Test series, without obtaining permission from Vectracom, the petitioner was apprehensive that they would repeat the practice for the ODIs as well.
"The respondents are exploiting this right of the petitioner in a commercial way, thereby earning huge profits. If the respondents are allowed to provide such information commercially, then the petitioner-company is responsible for any loss to both Vectracom and the Pakistan Cricket Board," Subramanian said, urging the court to protect his company's right to commercially exploit the SMS rights.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained cellphone service providers across the country from SMS-ing cricket scores of the India-Pakistan one-day series to subscribers. The next ODI is in Rawalpindi on February 11.
The interim injunction followed a petition by Marksman Marketing Services, which claimed that Pakistani company Vectracom had global rights for the SMS updates and no service had the rights as its Indian representative. R.Sivaraman, counsel for Chennai-based Marksman Marketing, said service providers would be also barred from relaying SMS alerts sent by news channels or websites.
Giving the interim order on a civil suit filed by the Chennai-based Marksman Marketing Services Pvt Ltd (MMSP) which has listed about 18 big mobile phone companies and websites as respondents, Justice M Chockalingam said that the court was of the "considered opinion that it is a fit case for an adinterim injunction for four weeks" as the "balance of convenience" was in the applicant's favour. The mobile operators cited as respondents in the petition and against whom the court has passed restraining orders included Bharati TeleVenture Limited (Airtel), BSNL, Reliance Infocom, Hutchinson Essar Limited, Gujarat-based Idea Cellular, Aircel Cellular, Mohali-based Spice Telecom in Punjab, Tata Indicom, Bangalore-based On Mobile Asia Pacific Pvt Ltd and IMI Mobile of Hyderabad
As per these agreements, all mobile operators and websites operating in India should obtain Marksman's permission for transmitting SMS information on the Indo-Pak ODIs since the company was the "only exclusive rights holder".
Any violation of these SMS rights by a telecom operator "constitutes an infringement of the intellectual property rights of the Pakistan Cricket Board," the petitioner Shankar Subramanian, managing director of MMSP contended.
Pointing out that several mobile phone companies and websites had transmitted SMS messages to their subscribers during the recently concluded India-Pakistan Test series, without obtaining permission from Vectracom, the petitioner was apprehensive that they would repeat the practice for the ODIs as well.
"The respondents are exploiting this right of the petitioner in a commercial way, thereby earning huge profits. If the respondents are allowed to provide such information commercially, then the petitioner-company is responsible for any loss to both Vectracom and the Pakistan Cricket Board," Subramanian said, urging the court to protect his company's right to commercially exploit the SMS rights.
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