Did Pradeep’s Love Today infringe the title of Vijay’s Love Today?

The title 'Love Today', in most of our minds, we tend to associate the title with the cast of Vijay, Raghuvaran, Suvalakshmi and Karan's Love Today!! Love Today is one of the many examples wherein an older movie's title has been lifted and used in a newer movie! Padikathavan, Thiruvilaiyadal Arambam, Mapillai and many more are titles that are taken from an older movie!

Let's legal check it right away to know if this taking constitutes any infringement!!!

Whether it is protected under copyright?

The statutory law pertaining to Copyrights, does not allow registration of titles. This essentially means that no matter how creative the title is, it is not entitled to copyright protection! Hence, in order to protect the title of the film, most production houses register the title of the film or song as a trademark.

Whether it is protected under trademark?

Well, unlike copyright, in order to claim trademark protection, the mark must be registered as per Trademarks Rules. Although 'Love Today' is not a registered trademark, marks such as Bahubali and Arundhadhi are registered and have protections from being commercial exploited by unauthorized persons.

Despite being protected or not under intellectual property law, the production house licenses the use of title. The terms and conditions of the license is completely up to the production house. Hence, it can only be assumed that the title of Love Today has been licensed to Mr. Kalapathi.S.