The "Solidworks" software is a computer-aided design (CAD) programme designed towards modelling and simulating three-dimensional (3D) solid items in a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, automotive, tran

Success of Solidworks Case The Copyright Act applies only to works first published in India, irrespective of the nationality of the author. However, Section 40 of the Copyright Act empowers the Government of India to extend the benefits of all or any of the provisions of the Act to works first published in any foreign country. The benefits granted to foreign works will not extend beyond what is available to the works in the home country and that too on a reciprocal basis i.e., the foreign country must grant similar protection to works entitled to copyright under the Act. The term of Copyright in India to the foreign work, will not exceed that conferred by the foreign country. Government of India has passed the International Copyright Order, 1958. According to this order any work first published in any country which is a member of the Berne Convention or the Universal Copyright Convention will be accorded the same treatment as if it was first published in India. The following are the requisites for conferring copyright protection to works of international organisations: (a) The work must be made or first published by or under the direction or control of the International Organisation. (b) There should be no copyright in the work in India at the time of making or on the first publication of the work. (c) If the work is published in pursuance of an agreement with the author, such agreement should not reserve the author any copyright in the work or any copyright in the work should belong to the organisation. Further, the facts of the given case in the question is similar to Dassault Systemes Solidworks vs. Spartan Engineering Industries decided by the Delhi High Court. The software programme of the plaintiff, as well as the instruction manuals relating thereto are, in the submission of plaintiffs, "literary work" entitled to copyright protection. These software programmes were developed by the employees of the plaintiffs for use by the plaintiffs and that, by application of the "work for hire" doctrine, the copyright therein belongs to the plaintiffs, as the employer of the employees who had developed the software. The Plaintiff is, therefore, the copyright owner in the software programmes which are "works", within the meaning of the Copyright Act, 1957. The software programme in issue was, first published in the United States of America. India and the United States are members of the Berne Convention, Universal Copyright Convention and the World Trade Organisation Agreement (WTO), which provide for protection of copyright, in India, for works which were first published in United States, as though they were first published in India, under Section 40 of the Copyright Act, 1957 read with the International Copyright Order, 1999. Clearly, this makes out a case of unauthorised infringement of the copyright held by the plaintiff in its "SOLIDWORKS" software. In light of the foregoing, the Plaintiff may seek:- An ad interim temporary injunction restraining the Defendants, their principal officers, directors, agents, franchisees, servants and all others acting for and on their behalf at the Defendants' premises, from directly or indirectly using for any kind of computer related activities or otherwise in any other manner, any pirated/unlicensed/unauthorized software programs of the Plaintiffs or reproducing and distributing any pirated/unlicensed/unauthorized software of the Plaintiffs in contravention of the terms of the End User License Agreement(s) (EULA)/ Customer License and Online Services Agreement (CLOSA), or infringing in any other manner or causing or enabling or assisting others to infringe the copyrights of the Plaintiffs including SOLIDWORKS software and its various versions or any other software programs developed by the Plaintiffs in any manner that may amount to infringement of the Plaintiffs' copyright subsisting in its software programs and software related documentation; An ad interim temporary injunction restraining the Defendants, their principal officers, directors, agents, franchisees, servants and all others acting for and on their behalf at the Defendants' premises, from directly or indirectly formatting the computer systems and/or erasing any data, log files, installations, etc. pertaining to assisting others to infringe the copyrights of the Plaintiffs subsisting in its software programs and software related documentation including SOLIDWORKS software and its various versions or any other software programs developed by the Plaintiffs.