New Delhi, Oct. 19: The Supreme Court has ruled that no copyright exists on the "title" of a movie or any other literary piece and quashed a criminal case against the producer of 2011 Bollywood film, Desi Boyz.

The case was filed by a writer, Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta, who claimed "Desi Boys" was the title of a story synopsis he had written and that he had the copyright on the two words. The movie starred Akshay Kumar, John Abraham and Deepika Padukone.

Devkatta did not make any film by the name "Desi Boys" but alleged copyright infringement saying the title was the "soul" of his story and copying it "took away everything".

The court did not agree. "A title by itself is in the nature of a name of a work and is not complete by itself, without the work. No instance of a title having been held to be the subject of a copyright has been pointed out to us. In the first place, a title does not qualify for being described as 'work'. It is incomplete in itself..." a bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and Madan B. Lokur said in a recent judgment.

The bench then dwelt specifically on Devkatta's claim. "...the combination of words 'Desi' and 'Boys' cannot be said to have anything original in it. They are extremely commonplace words in India...the title 'Desi Boys', assuming it to be a work, has nothing original in it in the sense that its origin cannot be attributed to respondent No.1 (Devkatta)," the bench added.

Devkatta had accused Desi Boyz producer Krishika Lulla and four others of cheating (IPC Section 420), criminal breach of trust (Sections 406) and of offences under Section 63 of the Copyrights Act. While Section 406 of the IPC and Section 63 of the Copyrights Act entail a maximum punishment of three years , a person convicted under Section 420 can be jailed up to seven years.

Bombay High Court had earlier refused to interfere with the cases, asking Lulla and the others to face trial, following which they moved the apex court.

According to Devkatta, he got his story synopsis titled "Desi Boys" registered with the Film Writers' Association in November 2008 and was "shocked" to see the movie release as Desi Boyz in 2011 without his knowledge that the name was being used.

However, Lulla said his film was based on a 2009 story by another writer, Milap Zaveri, who wrote it under an agreement and had been paid for it.

Upholding the producer's contention, Justice Bobde, writing the judgment, said: "In fact, these words (Desi Boys) do not even qualify for being described as 'literary work'. There is no copyright in the title and thus no question of its infringement arises."