Category Archives: Copyright

Topical Highlights SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace In Part I, Adarsh summarizes the recent SCOTUS ruling on Google’s copying of roughly 11,500 lines of code relating to 37 software packages forming part of Sun Java API, owned by Oracle. The court renders no finding on copyrightability and has restricted itself to the question of fair use by undertaking the four-factor analysis. On ‘Nature of the…

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

by Nikhil Purohit April 9, 2021

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It is a common practice for political parties to utilise songs, either original or non-original, as part of their election campaigns. Like most other things in life though, politicians have frequently thought themselves above the law when it comes to asking for permissions for using copyrighted songs! It has led to protests in countries such as the United States by artists against political usage of their music. A prominent controversy involving Rihanna’s objection to Donald Trump using her songs at…

The Compilation of the Decade of SpicyIP Posts on IPAB

by Swaraj Paul Barooah April 8, 2021

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[Co-authored/compiled with Praharsh Gour] Earlier this week, Praharsh blogged about the IPAB finally being scrapped through an ordinance, with its powers / duties transferred to High Courts and Commercial courts (for copyright matters). Long time readers may recall that Prof Shamnad Basheer, after pointing out various issues with it, had first started asking for the IPAB to be shut down 11 years ago, in this post titled “Pondering the legal competence of the IPAB”. Note the following lines – more…

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part II)

by Adarsh Ramanujan April 7, 2021

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In Part I of this two-part post, I introduced the SCOTUS’ judgment, the concept of API and summarised the majority’s finding. In this Part II, I summarise the minority opinion and share my critique of the judgment. The minority’s opinion The minority agrees with the majority insofar as “fair use” being a mixed question of fact and law. The minority disagrees with everything else. The minority criticises the Courts approach of determining the application of an exception/defence without issuing a…

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part I)

by Adarsh Ramanujan April 7, 2021

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On 5th April, the Supreme Court of the United States allowed Google’s appeal and held that Google’s copying of roughly 11,500 lines of code relating to 37 software packages forming part of Sun Java Application Programming Interface (API), owned by Oracle, was protected by ‘fair use’. The majority opinion was delivered by Justice Breyer (joined by 5 other judges), and a dissenting opinion was filed by Justice Thomas (joined by one other judge). One judge (Justice Barrett took no part…

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021

by Praharsh Gour April 5, 2021

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IPAB has been in the eye of the storm since its inception. While there are ardent believers of the institution (See here and here), there are equally strong arguments by the ones against it (few of them advanced by the former Chairperson of the institution itself!) (See here here and here). A few months ago, the Executive seemingly laid the debate to rest by introducing the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Bill 2021, proposing to scrap IPAB. However,…

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 29 – April 4)

by Anupriya Dhonchak April 5, 2021

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Topical Highlight Intellectual Property Rights in Covaxin – Part 2 (IP Ownership in Publicly Funded Research) In Part II of this post, Anupriya and Swaraj analyse the broader issue of IP ownership in outcomes of publicly funded research. They note that the government’s retention of IPR in Covaxin and the novel mRNA vaccine in the pipeline, would enable it to be in a position to share them with the rest of the developing world. They examine the patchwork of rules,…

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) Sales and Copyright Assignment: Part II (Some Issues for Discussion)

by Adarsh Ramanujan April 5, 2021

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In Part I, I briefly introduced NFTs, how they operate and why they are being hailed by content creators in the digital space. I had postulated that the NFT sale may just be the sale of the original/authentic copy of the work, or attached with a copyright license, or even an assignment, depending on the contractual terms. I had surmised that it would most likely not have any copyright license or assignment, based on a few contracts I could locate…

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) Sales and Copyright Assignment: Part I (The Contract is the Key)

by Adarsh Ramanujan April 5, 2021

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(Editor’s note: If readers are unfamiliar with what Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are and would like an explainer, you can refer to our earlier post by Awani Kelkar here. Adarsh’s two-part post goes on to do a deep dive including into some of the questions raised there.) NFTs have been all the rage quite recently, and many would have come across the articles on some NFTs being been sold for huge money by way of auction (here, here). But what does…

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Copyright Law: A “Nifty” Dilemma

by SpicyIP April 5, 2021

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Techno-friendly readers may have noticed that there is a sudden surge of interest in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) across the internet and may have even purchased some for themselves. Some more luddite readers like myself may have still been grappling with this ‘blockchain thing’, and now find ourselves needing to know about NFTs as well! What exactly are they? Why the sudden interest in them? What implications do they have, especially on copyright law? Well, we’re pleased to bring our readers…

Adyasha Samal { Thank you for bringing out that point, sir. Indeed, implementing a mandatory registration system would unfairly deprive Indian authors of the rights that foreign authors would continue to... }
Jagdish Sagar { Under Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention, copyright protection in works originating in other member countries of the Berne Union cannot be subject to any formalities. If India... }
Praharsh Gour { Hey Megha, Thank you for your comments and pointers. The scenario suggested by you are exactly the same thing we have raised concern about. Seemingly the whole business... }
Megha Banerjee { The only reason that government (ICMR) does not allow other pvt. Drug manufacturing companies to manufacture may be restrictions on ICMR and other other govt. Agencies to create... }
Akshat Agrawal { Hi Adarsh. Thank you. Continuing the conversation. Okay so I think step 1 is important. Copyright exists- but on what does copyright exist? The court has many times... }

De-Coding Indian Intellectual Property Law

Category Archives: Copyright

SpicyIP Weekly Review (April 5 – 11)

Vote for Enjoy Enjaami?: Elections, Parody Songs, and IP

The Compilation of the Decade of SpicyIP Posts on IPAB

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part II)

SCOTUS Decision in Google v. Oracle: Distorting ‘Fair Use’ but the Scathing (and Logical) Dissent is the One Saving Grace (Part I)

Breaking: President Promulgates Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 29 – April 4)

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) Sales and Copyright Assignment: Part II (Some Issues for Discussion)

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) Sales and Copyright Assignment: Part I (The Contract is the Key)

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Copyright Law: A “Nifty” Dilemma