Senior Advocate Harish Salve appeared for Rario today before a division bench of Justices Manmohan and Saurabh Banerjee and argued that there is a common misconception about where fair use ends and confidentiality begins.
He said that an NFT is nothing but the personality of a player and the players have the absolute right over their persona.
Salve submitted that the OFS platforms can use information of a player for building teams on their platforms but if they create an NFT, then that becomes a piece of property over which the player has the right and these platforms cannot trade those NFTs and earn profit without the consent of the player.
“By creating tradable cards, you (other OFS) have crossed a line. Because a tradable card is not based on a player’s performance, it is based on their persona,” he submitted.
The senior counsel argued that in the present case, the players are asserting exclusivity over their persona.
Rario has recognised their rights, paid substantial sums of money, and acquired rights to use that personality, he submitted.
“You can take the example of Sunil Gavaskar. If somebody today says that this is a Gavaskar signed bat and through digital means they take his signature, you are violating his privacy and it may also amount to passing off,” Salve added.
