Divij Joshi

Divij Joshi is a lawyer and tinkers in technology and policy. He tweets @divijualsuspect.

Strategic Legal Algorithms Against Public Participation: YouTube Disables Newslaundry’s Account Following Copyright Claims from Aaj Tak

by Divij Joshi October 12, 2021

In a new low for Indian media, Aaj Tak (owned by the media conglomerate Living Media) has allegedly taken to using copyright claims to prevent criticism of its reportage by media watchdog Newslaundry. On October 8, Newslaundry staff revealed that its YouTube operations had been stalled pending an enquiry into 53 separate copyright notices received by YouTube from Aaj Tak. The videos flagged (according to Newslaundry, not independently verified by us) pertained to Newslaundry’s commentary and criticism of Aaj Tak’s…

PPL’s Copyright Society Registration Rejected: Delhi High Court Issues Notice, Grants Ad-Interim Stay

by Divij Joshi June 8, 2021

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The Registrar of Copyrights has rejected the application of Phonographic Performance Limited India, (“PPL India”) a major collective rights organisation for sound recordings in India, to be a registered copyright society. Adding to the list of dramatic stand-offs between the Government of India and collective rights organisations like IPRS and PPL, the PPL has now approached the Delhi High Court to direct the Government to reconsider the registration application. Readers may be familiar with the strange saga of copyright societies…

What’s in a Stream? The Confounding Case of IPRS’s Live-Streaming Tariffs

by Divij Joshi July 29, 2020

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Angry-looking musician holding a mike on a stage

The Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) has been keeping busy during the COVID pandemic. In an undated notice, uploaded earlier in July, it announced a new tariff scheme for ‘live-streaming of online events and live/disc-jockey performances’. After receiving backlash from singers, musicians and popular press, reports have emerged that the tariffs have been put on ‘hold’ until September, 2020. In this post, I will examine some of the issues and concerns this notice has raised. [Important Edit 29/7: I missed…

Trademark

Bombay HC Clarifies Nature of Reliefs Applicable in Cybersquatting Disputes

by Divij Joshi July 17, 2020

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In an interesting and important order and judgement delivered by Justice Gautam Patel, the Bombay High Court has shed some clarity on the nature of reliefs applicable in domain name cybersquatting disputes – disputes relating to the wrongful or fraudulent use of trademarks as domain names. The order dated June 12, in Hindustan Unilever v. Endurance Domain and Ors. is available here. In brief, the court held that domain name registrars can not be expected to ‘block access’ to a…

Crawl Cautiously: Examining the Legal Landscape for Text and Data Mining in India – Part II

by Divij Joshi June 29, 2020

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We are pleased to bring to you a two-part guest post by Viraj Ananth, examining the legal landscape of TDM in India, an issue we have covered on this blog previously here. Viraj is a fourth year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Part I of this post studied the question of copyright infringement liability for TDM use in India, after introducing TDM technology and its popular techniques. Part II first explores international developments on copyright…

Crawl Cautiously: Examining the Legal Landscape for Text and Data Mining in India – Part I

by Divij Joshi June 29, 2020

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We are pleased to bring to you a two-part guest post by Viraj Ananth, examining the legal landscape of TDM in India, an issue we have covered on this blog previously here. Viraj is a fourth year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Part I of this post first introduces text and data mining (TDM) and contrasts popular TDM techniques, namely website scraping, website crawling or indexing, and website archiving. It then studies…

Dainik Jagran Sues Telegram for Copyright Infringement: Are Platforms or Group Admins Liable for Unlawful Speech on Closed Online Forums?

by Divij Joshi June 15, 2020

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Telegram, a widely used instant messaging platform, is in a copyright soup before the Delhi High Court, concerning the circulation of ‘e-papers’ or digital versions of newspapers, through open Telegram Channels, a group messaging feature available on the app. In an order dated May 29, 2020, Justice Mukta Gupta issued an ad-interim injunction directing Telegram to provide information about the subscribers or ‘owners’ of certain Telegram Channels allegedly circulating online versions of Dainik Jagran, a Hindi daily. Further, Telegram was…

The Legality of Digital Libraries in a Lockdown

by Divij Joshi April 29, 2020

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Quarantine and lockdown in the midst of the CoViD-19 pandemic has left entire populations without physical access to schools, colleges and public libraries. Even more than before, this has shone a spotlight on the digital access to cultural and educational resources. Taking a cue from Namratha’s insightful post on the responses of copyright law in such a situation, in this post I explore the many legal contentions around the ‘digital’ access to libraries, particularly in the present moment. This is…

A Response To the IMI’s Claims about ShareChat and Intermediary Safe Harbour Law in India

by Divij Joshi April 11, 2020

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ShareChat, an Indian local language social media service, is once again in the middle of a copyright storm. Readers may remember ShareChat’s tussle with TikTok from last year, regarding its status as an intermediary and protections against copyright infringement claims. This time, it’s ShareChat facing the proverbial music, with T-Series and a related entity Lahiri Recording taking civil and criminal action against ShareChat for allegedly violating their copyright through its services. The dispute has once again revealed the copyright fault…

COVID-19 Data Exclusivity Patent

CoViD-19 Pandemic Spurs Calls for ‘Openness’ in IP

by Divij Joshi March 31, 2020

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The CoViD-19 pandemic may well be humanity’s biggest collective challenge in a post-globalisation era. In the midst of this global emergency, the artificial scarcity produced by international and domestic intellectual property laws and norms is revealing itself to be a scourge to public health systems around the world – from restraining drug research and development to denying access to medical devices. The responses of various stakeholders will certainly have an immediate impact on CoViD-19 related public health responses, but its…

Pro Patent { I have seen many cases where examiners raises mechanical objections when it comes to asking applicant to mention source and origin of biological resource & asking NBA permission... }
Murti Poolla { 1. I would pray where is the word “Research” defined in any of our Indian Acts. Also, in any Acts of Foreign Countries like US, UK and EU... }
Samrat { Well-noted. Instead of the moralistic position taken by the patent office, the more appropriate approach would be to ascertain whether the innovation is less harmful than the tobacco... }
Dr Kadam Avinash { Hi Kapilji! Can a licensee files for trade mark in the same on its own ? There is a Technology and IP lies with the institutions. There are... }
Ayushman Kheterpal { It might be interesting to consider whether "mode or principle of construction" or "mere mechanical device" exclusion in the Section 2 (d) of the Designs Act has the... }