Indian singer Asha Bhosle has secured interim protection from the Bombay High Court in a commercial intellectual property (IP) suit concerning her personality rights. Justice Arif S. Doctor granted the ad-interim (temporary court protection pending full hearing) relief after noting that Bhosle had made out a strong prima facie case.
The case names several defendants: Mayk Inc. and its AI platform, Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd., Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd., an independent sketch artist, and Google LLC. Bhosle’s suit alleges that these parties facilitated or directly engaged in the unauthorised cloning of her voice, the sale of merchandise using her image, and the distribution of AI-generated content misusing her persona.
Notably, the Court restrained the defendants from exploiting her name, voice, likeness, and other attributes without her consent, and directed platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and YouTube to remove infringing listings and videos. Furthermore, the order also required disclosure of seller information where available. While Google sought time to take instructions, it agreed to remove specific links identified in the plaint. The case will be heard next on October 13, 2025.
What were the allegations?
In her commercial IP suit, Asha Bhosle levelled allegations against six defendants, accusing them of exploiting her personality rights without consent. She asserted that Mayk Inc. (Defendant No. 1) and its AI platform (Defendant No. 2) created and offered tools that cloned her voice. According to her, these platforms enabled users to generate songs and recordings mimicking her style, thereby distorting and modifying her performances for commercial gain.
Furthermore, she alleged that Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd. (Defendant No. 3) and Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd. (Defendant No. 4) hosted listings for posters, wallpapers, and caricatures of her likeness. She maintained that these online marketplaces facilitated unauthorised sellers in profiting from her image and goodwill.
Additionally, she claimed that the sketch artist (Defendant No. 5) promoted and sold T-shirts and hoodies featuring her photograph and name on his website, thereby commercially exploiting her identity.
Moreover, she argued that Google LLC (Defendant No. 6), through its platform YouTube, enabled the dissemination of videos using AI-generated versions of her voice. These clips, she emphasised, misled audiences by suggesting she had sung songs she never performed.
Interim Protection And Judge’s Observations
The judge held that the plaintiff had made out “a strong prima facie case for the grant of ad-interim relief.” He noted that Bhosle is “a pre-eminent personality in the field of music” and thus “entitled to protection of her personality rights, including the applicant/plaintiff’s name, voice, photograph/caricature, image, likeness, persona, and other attributes of her personality.”
Crucially, he remarked that…
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