Hari Puttar: HC dismisses Warner Bros’ plea

The multinational entertainment company had moved the court for an interim restraining order on the release of the Punjabi comedy, of which producers were “guilty of infringing the Warner Brothers trademarks” for choosing to name their movie Hari Puttar–a name “visually and phonetically similar to Harry Potter.”

Justice Reva Khetrapal, who heard the case on Monday, put the controversy to rest by pointing out that the target audience of Harry Potter books and films were quite different from the Indian film’s.

“Assuming there is any structural or phonetic similarity in the words Harry Potter and Hari Puttar, what has to be borne in mind is that Harry Potter films are targeted to meet the entertainment needs of an elite and exclusive audience…” explained the court.

Justice Khetrapal said “Harry Potter” was neither a “soap or a pharmaceutical product” to be mistakenly picked up by an unwary buyer. The Potter chronicles caters to an “educated person who has pored over the stories.”

“Such a person must be taken to be astute enough to know the difference between a Harry Potter film and another titled Hari Puttar. In my view, the cognoscenti, the intellectuals and even the pseudo-intellectuals presumably know the difference between chalk and cheese or at any rate must be presumed to know the same,” the Bench said, dismissing the plea to pass an interim stay on the release of the film with the same title.

“The plainitffs (Warner Brothers) have failed to establish a prima facie case for the grant of interim injunction in their favour,” Justice Khetrapal said The court said it found the Warner Brothers’ plea for stay a little too late in the day “with the film set for release within a matter of days.”