Remedies for Infringement of Copyright in India
Imagine spending years creating a piece of music or writing a book, only to have someone else profit from your hard work without your permission.
Unfortunately, copyright infringement is a common issue that many creators face.
There are legal options available for copyright holders to address instances of copyright infringement and protect their rights.
This article on: “remedies for infringement of copyright in India” will provide you a valuable insight into infringement and the remedies of violation that exist to address this problem.
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property rights (IPR) are a set of legal rights that protect the creations of the human mind.
These creations can take various forms, including inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, and names.
Intellectual property rights are designed to encourage innovation and creativity by giving creators exclusive rights over their creations for a certain period.
The four main types of intellectual property rights are patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Patents protect inventions, trademarks protect brand names and logos, copyrights protect original creative works, and trade secrets protect confidential information that gives a business a competitive advantage.
By providing legal protection for intellectual property, IPR helps promote innovation and creativity by allowing creators to profit from their work without fear of it being copied or stolen.
At the same time, IPR also helps ensure that consumers can trust and rely on the quality and authenticity of the products and services they purchase.
Suggested Reading: What type of intellectual property is protected by copyright?
What is Copyright All About?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property right that protects original creative works, such as literary, artistic, musical, or dramatic works, sound recordings, and cinematography films, from unauthorised use.
This means that the copyright holder has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, exhibits in public, as well as to create derivative works based on it.
Copyright protection is automatic and begins as soon as a work is created and fixed in a tangible form, such as being written down or recorded.
The content creator can also register their copyright with the government to establish a public record of their ownership and to gain additional legal protections.
It is a way of protecting the works of creators so that they have a reason to keep creating.
It does this by giving creators the exclusive right to use and distribute their works, preventing others from copying or using them without permission. This exclusivity is limited to a certain period of time and helps to promote creativity and innovation.
However, it also takes into account the public’s interest.
For example, fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission, such as for education or criticism. This helps to balance the rights of creators with the needs of society as a whole.
What is Not Considered a Copyright?
Copyright law protects the original expression of ideas, but not the ideas themselves.
This means that while you can copyright a particular creative work, such as a book or a song, you cannot copyright the underlying concept or idea.
For example, you cannot hold exclusive rights over the idea of a love story, but you can copyright a specific written expression of that idea, such as a novel or screenplay.
Similarly, you cannot copyright the idea of a recipe, but you can hold the ownership rights over the specific written instructions for preparing a dish.
It’s important to note that copyright law only applies to original creative works that have been fixed in a tangible form.
Ideas that have not been expressed in a fixed form, such as brainstorming sessions or conversations, are not subject to such legal protection.
Suggested Reading: Copyright protects an expression
Rights Granted by Copyright
Copyright law grants creators a bundle of exclusive rights, including the right to:
For example, if an author writes a book, they hold the copyright to that book and have all the exclusive rights listed above.
However, anyone else who wants to use the book in these listed ways must obtain permission from the author or risk infringing on their authorship rights.
Types of Rights
Copyright laws protect two types of rights: economic rights and moral rights.
Economic Rights
Economic rights enable the content creator to derive financial benefits from their intellectual creation. These rights are not uniform across all works protected under Indian copyright law, and they vary depending on the type of work.
For example, there are distinct variations in the economic rights between a film and a book.
领英推荐
Moral Rights
Moral rights are the author’s moral principles that give their work its essence. These rights enable the author to protect, preserve, and nurture their creativity.
These rights remain distinct from the rights stated before and endure with the author, even if they relinquish or assign all of their economic rights to a third party.
As a result, these rights remain with the author and cannot be relinquished.
In essence, copyright statutes ensure that creators have control over the use of their work and are entitled to benefit financially from their creation while also retaining their moral rights over their work.
What is Copyright Infringement?
Infringement occurs when a copyright infringer uses, reproduces, distributes, displays, or performs copyrighted work without the permission of the content architect.
This can include using a work in whole or in part, or creating a derivative work based on the original.
Examples of copyright infringement include:
Copyright infringement can result in legal action by the copyright owner, which may include a lawsuit for damages and an injunction to stop the infringing activity.
It is important to respect the rights of content producers and obtain permission before using or distributing copyrighted works.
Types of Infringement
There are two main types of copyright infringement: primary infringement and secondary infringement.
Primary infringement occurs when someone directly infringes on a copyright owner’s exclusive rights. This includes activities such as reproducing, distributing, displaying, or performing copyrighted work without permission.
Secondary infringement, on the other hand, occurs when someone facilitates or enables primary infringement.
This includes activities such as knowingly providing the means for others to infringe on a copyright, such as selling or distributing tools or software that can be used to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) or other copyright protection measures.
Secondary infringement can also include activities such as inducing or encouraging others to infringe on the ownership rights, such as providing instructions on how to download and share copyrighted works without permission.
Both primary and secondary infringement of copyright can result in legal action by the architect of the content, which may include damages and an injunction to stop the infringing activity.
It is important to respect their rights and obtain permission before using or distributing copyrighted works.
Remedies for Infringement of Copyright in India
When copyright is infringed upon, there are various remedies available to the copyright owner to seek justice.
These remedies can be broadly categorised into three types: civil, criminal, and administrative.
Civil Remedies for Copyright Infringement in India
Copyright infringement can have serious consequences for the maker of the content, which is why the Copyright Act of 1957 provides for civil remedies to protect their rights.
Interlocutory Injunctions
An interlocutory injunction is a powerful tool that provides immediate interlocutory relief to the tailor of the content who is suffering ongoing harm as a result of the breach.
It allows them to halt the infringing activity while the case is ongoing, giving them time to pursue other remedies against copyright infringement, such as seeking monetary damages
Requirements for Interlocutory Injunctions
To obtain an interlocutory injunction in a copyright infringement case, the plaintiff must generally satisfy three main requirements:
Anton Piller Order
The Anton Piller order, named after a notable case, allows a plaintiff in a copyright violation case to obtain a court order authorising entry into the defendant’s property for the purpose of inspecting and searching for evidence to support their claim.
However, in order to be granted this order, the plaintiff must demonstrate that they have a valid cause of action and have suffered damages.
The plaintiff is also required to present specific evidence to the court as part of their case against the defendant.
It is important to note that an Anton Piller order is not a search warrant and does not grant the plaintiff unlimited access to the defendant’s property. Rather, it allows for a limited inspection and preservation of evidence.
Failure to obtain court approval and the defendant’s consent could result in trespassing.
This type of order is commonly used in conjunction with injunctions, which seek to prevent the defendant from moving assets outside the jurisdiction of the court.
Mareva Injunction
The Mareva injunction is a legal tool used by courts when they suspect that a defendant is attempting to stall or interfere with the implementation of a court order.
In such cases, the court can order the defendant to put their assets or a portion of them under the court’s control to ensure that the court’s order is satisfied.
Order XXXVIII, Rule 5 of the Civil Procedure Code(CPC), 1908 governs this legal mechanism.
The original version of this article was published on the Bytescare Blogs.