International intellectual property law rests on a web of multilateral treaties and conventions that establish minimum standards of protection, define reciprocal obligations among member states and create the framework within which domestic copyright systems operate. At the centre of this web, for copyright, is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works […]
Supreme Court of India | Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud & B.V. Nagarathna JJ. | 27 September 2021 Civil Appeal Nos. 5985-5990 of 2021 Background Section 31D was inserted into the Copyright Act, 1957 by the Copyright Amendment Act, 2012 (brought into force on 21 June 2012). It creates a statutory licensing regime for broadcasting organisations that
Saregama India Limited vs. Next Radio Limited & Ors Read More »
Visual creativity occupies a distinctive place in the copyright landscape. A photograph taken in a fraction of a second, a painting developed over months, a sculpture carved from stone, an architectural elevation drafted with precision each of these represents an act of creative expression that the law recognises and protects, yet each raises questions about
Copyright in Photographs and Artistic Works in India Read More »
The relationship between an author and a publisher is among the oldest and most commercially consequential in the creative economy. It is a relationship built on a fundamental asymmetry: the author possesses the creative work and the copyright that protects it, while the publisher possesses the infrastructure, expertise, distribution networks and capital required to bring
Social media has fundamentally transformed the relationship between copyright law and everyday human behaviour. Before the internet, the act of reproducing, distributing or communicating a copyrighted work to the public was largely confined to publishers, broadcasters and commercial enterprises with the infrastructure to do so at scale. Copyright infringement was, for the most part, a
Copyright Issues in Social Media and User-Generated Content Read More »
Delhi High Court | Manmohan J. | 1 July 2019 AIRONLINE 2019 DEL 972 | (2019) 262 DLT 734 | CS(COMM) 753/2017 Background MRF Limited (plaintiff), a leading tyre manufacturer operating in approximately sixty-five countries, launched a tyre series called MRF NV Series “REVZ” in June 2015. To promote this product, the plaintiff produced an
High Court of Madras | Decided: 28 February 1958 C.S. Nos. 54 of 1955 & 215 of 1954 Presiding Judge: Justice Rajagopala Ayyangar Background Two suits were tried together before the Madras High Court as they raised common questions of law relating to copyright infringement, though the facts of each were different. In C.S. No.
Blackwood and Sons Ltd. & Ors. v. A.N. Parasuraman & Ors. Read More »
Every grant of exclusive rights must, in a society that values both the reward of creative effort and the freedom of public access to culture and knowledge, have a defined limit. Copyright is no exception. The rights that the Copyright Act, 1957 confers upon authors, producers, performers and broadcasters are not permanent. They subsist for
Copyright Duration – Rules for Different Categories of Works under Indian Law Read More »
The question of whether a collection of information facts, data, references, records or other pre-existing material assembled into an organised whole deserves intellectual property protection is among the most contested and practically consequential in copyright law. At its core, it forces a direct confrontation with the foundational tension between two equally legitimate values: the interest
Copyright in Databases and Compilations under Indian Law Read More »
High Court of Delhi | Justice S. Ravindra Bhat | Date of Decision: 17.09.2008 Case Number: IA No. 2352/2008 in CS (OS) 344/2008 BACKGROUND The plaintiffs comprise a Delaware-incorporated company and its subsidiaries incorporated in the United Kingdom and India, engaged in the manufacture and marketing of toys, games and consumer products. Among their well-known
Mattel Inc. & Ors. v. Mr. Jayant Agarwalla & Ors. Read More »