Seth Dua & Associates is acting in the Delhi high court for the company that owns the iconic jokes brand Santa Banta and runs humour and Bollywood news website santabanta.com.

The company had asked for a stay on the release of the movie ‘Santa Banta’ by production houses Cinetek Telefilms and Viacom18 Media with music by Music Broadcast.

Justice Manmohan Singh who was hearing the matter referred the parties to mediation in January, appointing senior advocate JP Sengh as the mediator.

Seth Dua IP and TMT partner Salman Waris with litigation associate partner Taru Gupta and associate Arjun Uppal briefed senior advocate Pratibha M Singh for SantaBanta.Com

Mine & Young partners Uttkarsh Tewari and Amitabh Chaturvedi briefed additional solicitor general Amarjeet Singh for Cinetek Films.

TMT managing partner Abhishek Malhotra acted for Viacom18.

Karanjawala partner Meghna Mishra briefed senior advocate Amit Sibal for Music Broadcast.

Santa Banta had asked for a permanent injunction against the release of the movie and claimed damages for infringement of their trademark.

While the court did not grant an injunction, Cinetek Films had given an undertaking to the high court 15 months ago that it would not release the movie, though Cinetek claimed to the Economic Times that it would be free to release it anytime once it was finished.

SantaBanta.com’s owner JD Ghai has demanded a licence fee, credits for the site in the movie and for the movie to be promoted on the site, but director Akashdeep Sabir of Cinetek Telefilms has claimed that his production house has made the movie under a valid licence procured from Music Broadcast, reported the Economic Times.

The mediation is ongoing.