Author name: Lokesh Vyas

Lokesh is a PhD candidate at Sciences Po, Paris, where he examines the “genealogy of international copyright discourse (1850s–2000)” under the guidance of Professors Séverine Dusollier and Alain Pottage. He graduated from the Institute of Law, Nirma University, and later pursued an LL.M. at American University Washington College of Law as an Arcadia Fellow and Arodhum Scholar. He was previously a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge. Lokesh is interested in questions of knowledge governance, which he enjoys exploring through historical and philosophical inquiry. He also takes a certain, steady satisfaction in essay competitions—having been fortunate to fare fairly well—securing, for instance, the first Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition in 2020 and the ATRIP Annual Essay Competition in 2024. He can be contacted at lokesh.vyas[at]sciencespo[dot]fr.

Part II: From the Archives: When Oxford Sent a Letter to Amend the Indian Copyright Law in 1901

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Salam, In the previous post, I discussed the Oxford letter, which was itself merely a response to an increasingly contentious issue: translation. Here, I turn to the broader context of nineteenth-century Indian copyright law and revisit two landmark decisions that left British publishers deeply dissatisfied, prompting a letter in response. Translation as Troublemaker for Publishers Now comes the main thing: translation. Printing arguably entered India in the sixteenth century, on September 6, 1556, by something of a happy accident, when […]

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Oxford, Clarendon Building

Part I: From the Archives: When Oxford Sent a Letter to Amend the Indian Copyright Law in 1901 

/ By / Copyright, Others

Namaskar, It is easy—and intuitive too—to suppose that Indian copyright law was nothing but British law imposed upon India. Plausible though the assumption may appear, the reality was more meandering and infinitely more intriguing. The deeper one delves, the clearer it becomes how confounding the history of Indian copyright is and how much of its buried past still awaits excavation. In this post, I untangle one of its many threads. A few months ago, while rummaging through the archives at

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A Brief History of the Official Language(s) of International Copyright Law

/ By / Copyright, Others

Bonjour. Today, I want to talk about something French. No, not wine. Not even cheese. But the French language, and my hobbyhorse: international copyright law. Here’s the story of why the beating heart of the Berne Convention still pulsates in French. As Article 37 of the Convention clarifies, while the Convention is drafted in both French and English, in the event of divergence, the French text prevails. Every time I glide through the Berne archives in French, I’m reminded: this

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From the Archives: The Giant, the Dwarf and the Lawyer – An 1847 Trilogue!

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(Disclaimer: Long post ahead, mostly a translated excerpt from an archive. But it might be engrossing, or so I hope.) Namaskar/Salam, If you remember, a few years ago (oh, ‘tis already a long ago …), Swaraj and I penned a series called IP Reveries, problematizing intellectual property rights, their theoretical justifications and history through a hypothetical classroom setting. Well … Guess what?  While rummaging through some 19th-century archives recently, I lit upon a text from 1847 carrying a similar thing!

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Notes From Doctoral Diary: TACIP, Turku (20 – 21 August 2025)

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Every once in a while, one happens to be at an academic gathering that feels less like a “conference” and more like a genuine coming together of minds, hearts, and histories. Yes. And TACIP, 2025, held in the strikingly serene city of Turku, in Finland, was one such experience for me. TACIP stands for Technical Assistance as an Enabler of the Constitutionalising of Intellectual Property Norms in Africa. (Quite a mouthful term, isn’t it …?) For context, TACIP is a

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From the Archives: A Telling Tale of Copyright Over the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana

/ By / Copyright, Others

Wishing our readers a very Happy Independence Day in advance! May this year bring love, luck, and lights into your life … get you the “freedom” in every beautiful sense of the word! Today, I bring to you a little gem from the archives. Yes … it’s a story of copyright, authorial control, and national unity, all wrapped around the Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. And really … What better day to unspool this spiel than the 79th year

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From the Archives: India’s (not so) Secret Breakup Letters to the Berne Convention

/ By / Copyright

Hello, Today, I got you two exciting archival documents regarding the Berne Convention, specifically the time when India was on the verge of denouncing it.  But here’s the context first … Some of our readers might already be familiar with the twists and turns of Indian copyright history—or may have read the exciting account by Prashant and Sumathi, which tells the story of India’s engagement with the Berne Convention. This multilateral treaty, first adopted in 1886, is considered the beginning

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Notes from the Doctoral Diary: 16th Annual Workshop of ISHTIP (25-26 June 2025)

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Namaskar, As June bade farewell, so too did the season of conferences—a rumoured rite of passage in the European academic circuit. Around this time last year, I wrote about my experience of ATRIP in Rome. This year, I return not from Rome, but from Madrid, where I had the pleasure of attending ISHTIP—the 16th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property. Unlike most IP gatherings where doctrine reigns supreme, ISHTIP is a curious

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The Great Flip: Can Opt-Outs be a Permitted Exception? Part II

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This post is co-authored with Yogesh Badwal, an incisive student from NLSIU, a SpicyIP member, and, of course, a dear friend. In the previous part, we examined whether the opt-out mechanism, as claimed in Gen-AI litigations, constitutes a prohibited formality for the “enjoyment and exercise” of authors’ rights under Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention. And we argued no. In this post, we address the second question: Can opting out be permitted as an exception under the three-step test outlined

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The Great Flip: Is Opt Out a Prohibited Formality under the Berne Convention? Part I

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This post is co-authored with Yogesh Badwal, an incisive student from NLSIU, a SpicyIP member, and, of course, a dear friend. Bonjour, Lately, we’ve been cogitating on this curious concept called the “opt-out”, which has been cropping up with increasing frequency in generative AI litigation, including in India. The EU and the UK are taking the idea seriously and considering giving it statutory teeth. On the surface, it is sold as a middle path, a small price to pay for

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