Sarwar Bhatti wins trademark certificate for ‘Maula Jatt’

–Bilal Lashari’s lawyer refutes reports claiming Sarwar has won original copyrights of ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt’

LAHORE: Producer Sarwar Bhatti has won the trademark certificate of the title “Maula Jatt”, as tweeted by his lawyer Barrister Hassaan Khan Niazi.

In 2017, Bhatti filed a suit before the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan’s (IPO) tribunal seeking an injunctive order against the exhibition of “The Legend Maula Jatt” directed by Bilal Lashari. He claimed to possess the rights of the movie, including title and cinematography.

The IPO rejected the claim stating, “No any violation of the CRO 1962 has been committed by the Encyclomedia Lashari Films,” adding that, “the cinematic work [in Bilal’s Maula Jatt] is actually very derivative work”.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Sarwar had won the original copyrights of “The Legend of Maula Jatt”, which was later refuted by Lashari’s lawyer Muhammad Ahmad Pansota, who said the producer of the 1979 thriller had only received the trademark certificate of the word “Maula Jatt”.

“The copyrights certificate, so far, is with us and is in our favour. He [Bhatti] never got a copyrights certificate,” the lawyer told Pakistan Today, alleging that Bhatti was making misstatements before the press.

However, Pansota added, the copyrights certificate that was in their name had been challenged by Bhatti.

“There is no battle that he has won. Two different trademarks have been applied for both the 1979 flick and our ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt’,” he said.

Sarwar’s counsel, Hassaan Niazi, on the other hand, said that “trademark itself was the main thing”.

“Trademark is the name of the film, which has been given to Sarwar Bhatti,” he told this scribe and added that copyright decision of content and characters, however, was still pending.

Earlier on Monday, Niazi had tweeted that after a strenuous fight for rights and struggle, the original copyrights of the 1970’s classic hit were being handed over to Sarwar Bhatti. He also mentioned that Lashari had taken the movie copyrights “by force”.

Breaking-plz RT against mafia.Sarwar Bhatti the maker of original “Maula Jutt” given the certificate of ownership TODAY. Only Sarwar sb has right over the movie HE HIMSELF MADE.Bilal Lashari tried to take away his ‘property’ BY FORCE. Court has given restraining order agnst Bilal pic.twitter.com/1gwJ5BOCAm

— Hassaan Niazi (@HniaziISF) January 7, 2019

Bilal Lashari’s “The Legend of Maula Jatt” is one of the most anticipated Pakistani films featuring the Humsafar couple Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan along with Hamza Ali Abbasi and Humaima Malick in lead roles.

The trailer of the movie is already out and received a wonderful response by the audience from all over Pakistan but prior to the release, there is an intense legal battle going on over copyright disputes between original Maula Jatt‘s producer Sarwar Bhatti and remake’s production team.

It was reported that after the trailer for the upcoming movie was released it was supposedly a “copyright violation” as well.

Last month, Bhatti had resurfaced with a new claim that he had attained a stay order from court over “Maula Jatt”, however, Intellectual Property Tribunal of Lahore (presided by Judge Khalid Mehmood Bhatti) vacated the stay order in producer Ammara Hikmat and Director Bilal Lashari’s favor months ago.

Moreover, the film’s director Bilal Lashari claimed that it was not a remake or sequel of the original version in any way.