Manshing is running a photocopy shop which was established in the year 1997 in the name and style of Maheswari Photocopy Services (defendant in this case). The said shop is located at the premises of Indian Institute of

CS Professional · Intellectual Property Rights - Law and Practice · PYQS · June 2024
Manshing is running a photocopy shop which was established in the year 1997 in the name and style of Maheswari Photocopy Services (defendant in this case). The said shop is located at the premises of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. There are many students visiting this shop more frequently as the shop serves main source of course materials by way of xerox copies from various books both national and international published by different publishers. As such some Professors and Associate Professors of the said IIT creates course packs which contained excerpts from books written by other various authors of different publishing houses. The pages were xeroxed, bound and given to students at a nominal rate of Re. 0.50 paise per page. Oxford University Press Cambridge University Press (UK), Taylor & Francis Group (UK), Cambridge University Press India Ltd. and Taylor & Francis Books India P. Ltd. came to know about this course pack, they sued the defendant for the infringement of Copyright for distributing copies of their published books without proper authorization. The plaintiffs instituted this suit for the relief of permanent injunction restraining the two defendants from infringing the copyright of the plaintiffs in their publication by photocopying reproduction and distribution of copies of plaintiffs' publication on a large scale and circulating the same and by sale of unauthorised complications of substantial extracts from the plaintiffs publications by compiling them into course packs/anthologies for sale. Maheswari Photocopy Services received support from academics, activists, and students alike in response to the law suit and several petitions were submitted to be impleaded as defendants including the Society for Promoting Educational Access and Knowledge (SPEAK) and the Association of Students for Equal Access to Knowledge (ASEAK). A temporary injunction prohibiting defendant from selling the cloned course packages was issued by the Court. The defendant contended that no violations of copyright is committed by them as the reproduction is for educational reasons. They mentioned that Copyright specially in literary work is thus not an inevitable, divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creation. It is designed rather to stimulate activity and progress in the arts for the intellectual enrichment of the public. Copyright is intended to increase and not to impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public. Questions: (d) Besides traditional remedies the non-traditional form of remedies have assumed more popularity nowadays. Explain.

Answer & Explanation:

Answer 2(d) Besides traditional remedies the non-traditional forms of remedies like, Anton Piller Order, have assumed more popularity now-a-days. The first use of such order was made by Templeman J, in EMI v. Pandit, (1975) 1ALL ER 418, to protect the offending evidences from being destroyed. However, it was only after the case of Anton Piller KG v. Manufacturing Process, (1976) 1ALL ER 779.418, that it gained recognition and popularity. The statutes governing intellectual property in India like Copyright Act, 1957, Trade Marks Act, 1999; Patents Act, 1970 (as amended), Designs Act, 2000 etc. stipulate the rights that are available to the intellectual property owner, besides containing a sound mechanism to prevent the infringement of intellectual property rights. The remedies available for protection of IPR are broadly classified into civil and criminal remedies. The orders in line of Anton Piller order are made under the head of civil remedies. The application of Anton Piller order in India is still in a nascent stage. There are not many case-laws debating over the aspects of Anton Piller order. One of the earliest case that dealt with the concept of Anton Piller order, though cursorily was National Garments v. National Apparels, (1990) PTC 98. The purpose of Anton Piller order is the preservation of evidences. The application of Anton Piller order in India is still in nascent stage and lot many questions are still left unanswered.

Topics: Copyright

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