Will India Inc face lawsuits for praising PV Sindhu?

Are you from India Inc and want to congratulate the Olympic medal winning players from the country through social media? If yes, then please hold your breath. You need to check if you have taken the consent of the player concerned before doing so.

Even as the sports management firm, Baseline Ventures gears up to serve legal notices to over 20 brands for using PV Sindhu's image without proper permissions, it has turned into a heated debate whether to congratulate PV Sindhu, an ace badminton player, for her bagging a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics or not.

The company is seeking damages worth Rs5 crore from each of the brands that have flouted the norms.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank had congratulated Sindhu in its FB post. Similarly, several other banks like SBI, Kotak Mahindra Bank, PNB, Bank of Maharashtra and several other corporate like Paan Bahar had also joined the bandwagon on social media for the same. Requesting anonymity, a senior official of Bank of Maharashtra said: "We have only used the photograph of Sindhu in the bank's social media campaign to congratulate her as she has made the entire nation proud by bagging two Olympic medals. But we haven't used her name for any kind of commercial gains in mind."

However, the firm thinks otherwise. It believes that after Sindhu's bronze medal win at the Olympic Games, many companies used moment marketing strategies to capitalise on the social media buzz through posts that used her name or images along with their brand names or logos without bothering to take her consent for the same.

"I think individual sportstars own their names, identities and personas. The personal brand of the sportstar can therefore be used with the permission of the star. Not without. Using the name of a star and closely relating it to a commercial brand is misuse for sure.

Possibly a subtle misuse. But misuse it is," says Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Is this happening for the first time? Not at all. The same Baseline Ventures, which also handles the cricketer Prithvi Shaw, had threatened to sue various brands three years ago when Shaw scored his first Test hundred and social media was flooded with congratulatory messages. In fact, the firm had given tough times to Swiggy and by serving 'cease and desist' notices to them, seeking compensation of Rs 1 crore from each of them.

"To me, the Baseline legal notice even then was just a PR gimmick. It is so now too. A cheap ruse to gain headlines and gain visibility. Frankly trademark infringement could only have happened if Prithvi Shaw already had a trademark on either his name," says Dr Sandeep Goyal, Managing Director of Rediffusion.

Tata Motors CVBU is associated with Wrestling Federation of India and is even supporting the wrestlers representing India at the Tokyo Olympics. While Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57 kg) has won the Silver medal, Bajrang Punia (65 kg) has bagged bronze medal.

"We use the names of the Olympic medal winning wrestlers for the company's branding purpose because we have already signed contract with them for the same through the Federation," said a company spokesperson requesting anonymity.

An official from one of the companies that are likely to be served legal notices by the sports management firm, said that "we have not issued any such message keeping our commercial gain in mind. Whatever Sindhu has done is the nation's pride and so we just wanted to show our solidarity with her. Hence, no question lies to take her permission for the same."