Applause had approached the Court asserting its copyright as owner and proprietor of publicity and character rights with regards to the web series and the members of the cast.
In December 2022, it came across Instagram accounts using parts of the series, in the context of their businesses or for promotion of their accounts to generate revenue.
The production house then filed a complaint against such accounts, but received no response from Instagram. The account holders allegedly continued with their activities of infringing on the proprietary rights of Applause.
Further in March 2023, Applause discovered additional social media handles using clips and abridged versions of the web series. When this was flagged, Meta Platforms Inc, which owns Instagram, again failed to respond. The company eventually replied to Applause, claiming that it was not clear as to whether Applause was indeed the owner of the copyright in the series.
In view of this, Applause was constrained to move the High Court.
Source: Barandbench
