The Bombay High Court has issued a temporary order against social media influencer Gaurav Taneja, also known as “The Flying Beast,” in a copyright infringement case filed by Castrol India Ltd, a multinational company specializing in manufacturing lubricants for automobiles.
He has also been directed to remove two videos from his YouTube channel which were infringing on Castrol’s copyrights.
What Happened?
According to the petition, in April 2024, Castrol undertook a campaign titled ‘Castronomy’, where video bloggers were commissioned to capture zero-gravity flight experiences in the United States. Castrol India was responsible for the travel, accommodation and participation costs for bloggers, who were required to produce content promoting the campaign and the company.
Gaurav Taneja travelled to the United States in and participated in the campaign in May along with American YouTuber Eric Decker, shooting videos and photographs of the event over the next three days. On October 29th and November 1st, he uploaded two videos on his YouTube channel titled ‘Ready to go in Zero Gravity with @airrack’ and ‘Flying in zero gravity’ respectively.
However, he reportedly did not give any credit to Castrol or promote the ‘Castronomy’ campaign, according to the company.
Castrol India made several requests to Taneja to remove those videos from his channel, even offering him ₹5 lakh to take down the content. However, their efforts were to no avail, the company said in the petition.
They sought the removal of the videos and photos from Taneja’s social media accounts.
What did the HC Decide?
Justice Riyaz Chagla has ruled in favor of Castrol thus granted interim relief to the firm, stating:
“I am of the view that the Defendant No. 1 has unauthorizedly uploaded and leveraged the Impugned Content which is a reproduction of the Raw Data and / or substantial parts thereof and the same is publicly available on the Defendant No. 1’s social media accounts / channels and can be readily accessed by anyone on the internet.”
Thus, the Court issued a temporary injunction restraining Taneja and his associates from using the Raw Data or Collab Content on any platform. He was also ordered to remove the specific videos from his platform.
