The Commercial Court at Patiala House, New Delhi, presided over by District Judge Hemani Malhotra, granted an ex-parte ad interim injunction in favour of ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. in a copyright infringement suit filed against the YouTube channel Pathfinder by Unacademy and Google LLC. The Court restrained the defendants from reproducing, uploading, or distributing ANI’s original video content without authorization.
ANI, a prominent multimedia news agency, alleged that Pathfinder by Unacademy, a channel aimed at UPSC aspirants and operated by Defendant No.1, had unlawfully published three of ANI’s original news videos on 24 April, 5 May, and 14 May 2025. The plaintiff contended that the channel, hosted on YouTube by Defendant No.2 (Google LLC), had neither sought permission nor obtained any license for using its proprietary content, which had been made available only to its subscribers and through its official YouTube channel.
ANI stated that it initially issued copyright strikes under YouTube’s internal copyright enforcement mechanism on 14 and 16 May 2025. Google, upon examining the claims, removed the infringing content from the channel. ANI also informed the Court that Pathfinder by Unacademy had subsequently issued an apology and assured that no further unauthorized use of ANI’s content would occur. However, despite these assurances, on 21 May 2025, the defendant channel issued three counter-strikes, asserting that the videos were used for educational purposes, featured original commentary, and constituted “fair use.” The defendants claimed that the videos were non-commercial, informative in nature, and involved only brief excerpts (less than a minute) of ANI’s original content.
Despite these claims, ANI argued that the defendant had substantially reproduced its content, often in its entirety, and had uploaded it under its own branding. The plaintiff alleged that this not only amounted to copyright infringement, but also violated YouTube’s platform policies and constituted acts of piracy and plagiarism, carried out with the intent to gain viewership and commercial traction using ANI’s resources and journalistic output.
After hearing the submissions and perusing the documents filed, the Court held that the plaintiff had established a prima facie case and that the balance of convenience lay in its favour. The Court observed that irreparable harm would be caused to ANI if interim protection was not granted, particularly given the scale of dissemination and the commercial reach of the infringing channel.
Accordingly, the Court passed an interim order restraining Pathfinder by Unacademy from posting, publishing, uploading, distributing, or otherwise using ANI’s original videos or any other copyrighted content across any platform, including YouTube. The channel was also directed to remove all infringing material. Google LLC, the platform provider, was directed to take down, block, and disable access to any infringing content hosted on the channel, as prayed in the plaint.
Additionally, the Court allowed ANI’s application seeking exemption from pre-institution mediation under Section 12A(1) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, citing the urgency of the matter. The suit has been listed for further proceedings on 11 September 2025. The defendants have been directed to be served via all permissible modes, including electronic communication such as email and WhatsApp.
Appearances:
Plaintiff: Ms. Anshika Saxena, ld. counsel
Defendant: Ms. Himani Sachdeva, ld. counsel
