The plaintiff, Polymer India Ltd., is a leading manufacturer and distributor of quality products made using plastic moulding technology. Its products include toys, school furniture and playground equipment. The plaintiff

CS Professional · Intellectual Property Rights - Laws and Practices · PYQS · June 2024
The plaintiff, Polymer India Ltd., is a leading manufacturer and distributor of quality products made using plastic moulding technology. Its products include toys, school furniture and playground equipment. The plaintiff is also the registered proprietor of the trademark 'PLAY' since 25th August, 2005. The plaintiff sued eight defendants namely Playwell Impex Pvt. Ltd., Mayank, Ms. Meenakshi, Pawan, Vishal, Darshan, R.P. Associates and Funko India who are involved in manufacture and distribution of similar products. The plaintiff claimed relief of permanent injunction to restrain the defendants from infringing its copyright, common law rights in designs and passing off of deceptively similar products. An ex parte ad interim injunction was granted to the plaintiff by a Court vide its order dated 7th August, 2015 and the goods of the defendants were seized by the Court Commissioner appointed vide the same order. The plaintiff's contentions are: That the products of plaintiff are unique and conceptualised individually, which involves study of the market, preparation of the drawings, drawing a feasibility report, preparation of a new colour scheme, finalisation of dimensions, etc. That the defendant Playwell Impex Private Ltd. is engaged in the business of manufacture, distribution and sale of toys in collusion with the other defendants including R.P. Associates who was earlier the distributor of plaintiff's products and Darshan, who is an ex-employee of the plaintiff. The defendant Playwell Impex Pvt. Ltd. has launched a range of toys which are identical and deceptively similar to the toys made by the plaintiff and is thereby passing off its goods as those of the plaintiff, infringing the bundle of intellectual property rights of the plaintiff in its products. That the toys manufactured and sold by the defendants under the brand FUNKID are a substantial re-production and colorable imitation of the products of the plaintiff. That there is a clear distinction between an original artistic work and a design derived from it for industrial application on a product. The original artistic work which may be used to industrially produce the designed article would fall within the meaning of artistic work defined under section 2(c) of the Copyright Act, 1957 and would be entitled to copyright protection as defined under sction 2(d) of the Designs Act, 2000. That the defendants in their written statement have admitted the e-mail of the defendant Darshan to the defendant Playwell Impex Pvt. Ltd. forwarding the brochure of the toys of the plaintiff and therefrom it is evident that the defendant Playwell Impex Pvt. Ltd. is replicating from the brochure of the plaintiff. The defendants' contentions are : That the drawing in which the plaintiff claims a copyright does not constitute a design within the meaning of section 2(d) of the Designs Act, 2000 and is thus, not capable of being registered under the Act. That the plaintiff has no right to claim protection of design without any registration. That the plaintiff's toys which are being manufactured since the year 1992, are not novel and similar products are available in the market for a long time. That the plaintiff's products to which the design has been applied have been reproduced by it, more than 50 times by an industrial process. That the interim injunction granted is not justified when infringement is not proved. Explain the copyright protection to foreign works in India. What are the conditions for such copyright protection in India ?

Answer & Explanation:

Copyright Protection to Foreign Works 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. Conditions of Copyright Protection The following are the requisites for conferring copyright protection to works of international organisations: The work must be made or first published by or under the direction or control of the International Organisation. There should be no copyright in the work in India at the time of making or on the first publication of the work. If the work is published in pursuance of an agreement with the author, such agreement should not reserve to the author any copyright in the work or any copyright in the work should belong to the organisation.

Topics: Copyright Law

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