M Entertainment v. Baby Gift House and Ors.

Daler Mehendi, a famous Punjabi pop star, has a large fan base and is extremely popular among Punjabi pop music fans. DM Entertainment was founded in 1996 to manage the artist's rapidly growing career. The defendant company was making a lot of money off of the artist's popularity by selling miniature dolls of him. The plaintiff company was enraged and sought a permanent injunction to prevent infringing on the artist's right to publicity and false endorsement leading to passing off.

All rights, titles, and interests in the artist's personaliy, as well as the trademark Daler Mehendi, were assigned to the plaintiff company.

The plaintiff contended that the unauthorised or unlicensed use of the artist's reputation in connection with goods or services would mislead the public into believing that the goods and services were associated with the singer, resulting in passing off. The plaintiff also claimed that such use was done for commercial exploitation without the person's or any other authorised by him obtaining adequate permission, and that it constituted an infringement of the person's right to publicity.

Character merchandising is a legal area that has yet to be explored in India. This was the first case dealing with the issue of celebrity merchandising in which the artist's publicity rights were recognised.