Ek Tha Tiger in Copyright Tussle

Salman Khan's recent block buster film Ek Tha Tiger is now engaged in copyright battle with script writer Anand Pande. Anand Pande accuses that story of the movie Ek Tha Tiger is a copy of his original work titled "Ghost War" .

He submits that he has shown his work to Yash Raj Films, producers of Ek tha tiger who after rejecting the story has incorporated the same into their new hit movie.

Following his complaint Bombay High court Division bench of Justice A S Oka and Sadhana Jadhav has directed the police to conduct a probe into the complaint and submit their report before 7th November.

Anand has also registered a complaint with the Writers Association. Ek tha Tiger is an Indian romantic action thriller film which has accounted a total gross profit of Rs 300 crore.

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Chinese writers sue Apple for copyright infringement

Apple is all over news again after a group of Chinese writers filed a copyright infringement against them in Beijing for unauthorizedly selling electronic version of their book  via App store.

Writers demanded a compensation of 1.6 million USD for violating their copyrights 34 different works. writers allege that the applications involved unlicensed electronic version of their book which have been heavily downloaded, causing huge economic loses to them while bringing profits to Apple as well as the application developers.

Apple however took the plea that they are a not the proper party to the suit and appealed for application developer to stand for the trial. 

Earlier same court have order Apple to pay 8270.30 USD as compensation for economic losses suffered by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House for copyright infringements

EBC restrained from publishing its own injunction

Earlier we have reported about an injunction granted by the Lucknow District  against Westlaw India and Indlaw from infringing the copyrights of Eastern Book Company in their case reports "Supreme Court Cases". Report available here.

Now in an interesting move Legally India reports that the  Lucknow District court through another injunction restrained EBC from publicizing that they have been granted an injunction by the same court for alleged plagiarism.

Order: (translation available with Legally India). 

Michigan Singalong faces copyright issues

The producers and sponsors of the “The Pure Michigan Statewide Singalong” are facing the copyright infringement allegations from the creators of the platinum hit song “Good Time” on which it is based. However, they say that they hope to resolve a copyright dispute with the creators.

On Friday, a copyright claim from Songs Music Publishing led YouTube to take down the popular video of a statewide sing-along shot for Michigan’s tourism promotion agency. The song was intended to promote travel in the state.

The video of the singlong was produced by Jeff Barrett and Rob Bliss of Grand Rapids-based Status Creative. It uses the melody and adapts the lyrics of “Good Time,” written by Brian Lee and Matthew Thiessen. 

Mr. David Lorenz, the spokesman for Pure Michigan, (the nonprofit agency that promotes travel in the state) said he hopes talks between the producers and copyright holders will let Pure Michigan post the video again.
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Amar Remedies accused of “passing off”

Dabur Ayurvedic Natural Health Care Products India has filed a case against Amar Remedies, for infringing on the intellectual property rights (IPR) to its brand Meswak. Dabur in the has alleged that Amar Remedies manufactures a toothpaste under the brand name  Siwak and exports it to Algeria.

Along with IPR infringement, Dabur in the suit has also alleged that Amar Remedies has attempted to "pass off" Siwak as Meswak. Passing-off in IPR law means making a false representation that is likely to induce a person to believe that the goods or services are those of another.

In the petition Dabur has alleged that Amar has dishonestly adopted the the said mark Siwak on the toothpaste only with a view to trade on its  goodwill and  reputation 

Contributed by Abhishek Kukreti

Apple embarks on a winning spree

In a setback for Google and another win for Apple, a German court has found Google-owned IT company Motorola guilty of infringing Apple patents on the design of smartphones and tablets, a court spokesman said on Thursday. The court ordered Motorola to pay a yet-to-be-specified fine and pull the infringing devices, from the market.

This particular patent involves a feature known as "overscroll bounce" or "rubber-banding" that pulls a written text or image back to the centre of the screen to signify to the user that the end of a list or menu has been completed. Motorola had won a similar patent case in western Germany last July and has one month to appeal the decision.

 It would be interesting to see, what would be the outcome of the appeal. On the other hand for Apple, it has been a winning spree, till now. In August, a California court decided in favour of Apple in a patent case against Samsung, awarding the iPhone maker about one billion dollars in damages.  

The case is just one of many patent battles that technology companies have waged worldwide, but especially in Germany where patent protection laws are particularly strict. This case might just give Apple, the required boost to sell its latest IPhone, which has got a mixed review.

Contributed by

Abhishek Kukreti

Ek tha Tiger in copyright controversy !!

After a series of movies like Jannath 2 and Desi Boyz, now it is the turn of Salman Khan starrer Ek Tha Tiger. According to reports Salman's blockbuster has met with a copyright infringement case after one Mr Anand Pande has filed a complaint with Mumbai police alleging that the producers have stolen his script and made it into a movie without providing him adequate compensation.

However Hindustan times report that Neelesh Mishra, Co-writer of Ek Tha Tiger has vehemently denied the charges of copying and even challenged Anand Pande to prove his charges.

Mumbai Police have already lodged an FIR against the producer Aditya Chopra and Director Kabir Khan. Anand Pande has also filed  a complaint against them with the Film Writers Association.

Pnade has earlier approached the Mumbai Highcourt who directed the police to launch an FIR on the issue.

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Photocopying unit faces copyright infringement suit

Cambridge University Press, along with Oxford University Press and an online journals company Francis and Taylor have filed a copyright infringement suit against Delhi University and Rameshwari Photocopy Services, a photocopying shop located on the premises of Delhi School of Economics. The trio (Big P), alleges that the shop has been involved in creating illegal, pirated versions of books originally published by them. The shop has been accused of copyright infringement.

Big P has asked for damages amounting to sixty lakhs. Damages sought is on the assumption that every photocopy is a lost sale but aside from this dubious assumption inflated sums are usually a part of the shock and awe tactics that copyright owners use to establish a test case.

DU students have put forth the argument, that many of the courses just prescribe one or two chapters from the books, so it is not feasible for them, to buy the books, which are most of the times, exorbitantly priced. Most of the students come from economically weaker sections of the society.  
This is not the case, just with DU. Almost all college going students across India, get the books photocopied.  Sec. 52(1)(i) of Copyright Act of 1957,   allows for ‘the reproduction of any work by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction’ or as a part of questions or answers to questions. Further a fair dealing with any work  (except computer programs) for the purposes of private or personal use, including research is also excepted from provisions of infringement.  Therefore, reproduction by photocopy for educational purposes is allowed under the Copyright legislation.

In this war between the publishers, and the shop, the ultimate losers are the students, who for no fault of theirs have to suffer.  As a student of DU, rightly puts forth, “You just cannot produce scholars with a ban on photocopying course material.” It would be very much interesting to watch now how courts are going to handle the situation.

Contributed by: Abhishek 

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EBC granted injunction against Westlaw for infringing copyright

Thomson Reuters, the multinational information conglomerate based on New York along with its Indian operations- Westlaw India and Indlaw have been restrained by an ad interim injunction from infringing the Copyrights of EBC in their law report "Supreme Court Cases" known as SCC. 

EBC's right over head notes and editorial notes in SCC were earlier upheld by the Supreme Court in Eastern book company v D B Modak

In a lawsuit filed against Thomson Reuters / Westlaw India / Indlaw, the Lucknow District Court Judge, has passed an Interim Injunction on 22/8/2012 restraining the defendants, their assignee's, business franchises, licensees, distributors, agents etc from selling, distributing or otherwise make available to people either as CD- ROM's or through their website or any other means which would infringe the copyright of SCC during the pendency of the suit.

The learned judge after taking into account the affidavit filed by EBC and the contentions raised by them felt that there is a prima facie case as well as balance of convenience  in favour of the plaintiff  due to "exact tallying" of editorial notes by the defendants in their online journals 

14th September has been set out as the date for filing written statements and framing issues.

EBC v Thomson Reuters Order

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Trademark Infringement Suit over Kyuss Lives ! decided

In a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by former Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme and bassist Scott Reeder against their ex-bandmates, vocalist John Garcia and drummer Brant Bjork, involving the use of the latter pair's current incarnation, Kyuss Lives !, judge S. James Otero of the United States District Court Central District of California has given the verdict on 20^th of this month. According to the judgment, Kyuss Lives ! has been allowed to the Defendants to be used as a signature for live performances, but not for recordings.

"The court will issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting defendants from using the Kyuss mark in any capacity unless the word 'Lives' follows the word 'Kyuss' in equally-prominent lettering," says the verdict.

In his statement, Bjork previously claimed that Homme and Reeder had only trademarked the Kyuss name after Bjork had left the band in 1993, thus giving rise to issue as to whether the pair can be held liable for stealing the title.          

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Trial Day: Apple alleges that Samsung copied the icons of iPhone

According to sources, in the yesterday’s court proceedings, the Apple Inc. alleged that Samsung Electronics Co. changed the design of its smart-phone icons in order give it resemblance to the icons on the iPhone. In the support of its claim, it presented an internal Samsung document to a jury in California.

In the excerpts of a 2010 internal Samsung report, which was presented by the Apple Inc., the Samsung did a side-by- side comparison of its icon designs next to those of the iPhone. As per the recommendations of the report, Samsung altered icons that weren’t as user-friendly as those on Apple’s devices.

Susan Kare, a former Apple graphics designer said in the court that the icons for the companies’ current competing products are “confusingly similar”, both being square with round edges and displayed on the device in rows of four. She also told the jury that while visiting the office of Apple’s lawyers, she mistook a Samsung smart-phone for an iPhone.
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Google should pay $750 per book, says authors in copyright case

Authors suing Google for copyright infringement for  digitization of their works in Google books case have made a filing in a federal court in Southern District of New York to make an order requiring the internet giant to pay $750 per book it copied, distributed or displayed as a part of Google book project.

In its filing  president of Authors Guild, Scot Turow urged the court to rule that Google's unauthorized digitization of works does not amount to fair use. Current motion claims that Google has implemented its library project for commercial reasons to gain competitive advantage over its competitors, Microsoft and Amazon which were also digitizing books but with permission of authors.

On the contrary Google's spokesman took a stand against this view and puts that "Google library project constitutes fair use within copyright law by allowing the users to identify interesting books and find ways to borrow or buys those books and acts much like a card catalog in digital age.

 Google books project began seven years ago, where millions of books where scanned and converted into digital format after entering into agreements with libraries. Further details of project is available here.

Soon after the launch of this project, the authors across world came against it claiming copyright infringement. They claim that scanning in real sense means copying and  thus unauthorized digitization of their works by Google amounts to copyright violations.On the other hand Google always maintained its position that The Books Project amount to fair use within copyright legislation.

It was in mid 2005,  the  Authors Guild and American Association of Publishers filed a suit against Google in a Federal Court of New York to prevent them from digitizing works. The case was sooner declared to be a Class action suit.

In May 2011, a settlement package offered by Google amounting to $127 million USD was rejected by a Federal Judge.

Current motion filed by Authors guild was a  response to Google's motion on 27/7/2012 seeking dismissal of the long running case by claiming that authors have not suffered any economic harm owing to its copying and displaying of digital copies.

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EA Files Copyright infringement suit against Zynga

Electronic Arts Inc,an American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games on Friday filed a copyright infringement suit against Zynga, a Social games service provider from San Francisco. EA inc claims that Zynga's  "Ville" game violates their rights over " Sims social", an EA game that runs over Facebook.

EA filed a complaint before a Federal court in San Fracnsico alleging that Zynga's lately released Facebook game "VILLE" contains original elements of their game "Sims social" . EA claims that Zynga has " Willfully and intentionally copied and misappropriated the original distinctive expressive elements of Sims social". 

Launched in August 2011 Sims social is claimed to be viewed and used by several millions of users over Facebook. Lucy Bradshaw in his statement called Zynga's new game as unmistakable infringement of sims social. He claims that " the copying was so comprehensive that the two games are to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable " . He claims the case to be a matter of principle and alleges that Zynga has violated copyrights of other companies in several instances.

EA arts calls its step to be a a stand intended to protect the value of original creative works of the industry as well as of those who work tirelessly to create them.

Zyng's counsel, Reggie Davis,  in his statement denied the claims put forwarded by EA and calls it unfortunate and " lack of understanding of basic copyright principles by them". The Ville according to him is the newest branch of Ville franchise including Cityvill, YoVille and CastleVille and introduces new features which are unknown to the entertainment industry. Further he makes clear their intention to defend the case to the " Fullest extent possible and win with the players".

Another Tamil Film gets copyright cover

Another Tamil film,  "Mirattal" has managed to secure a John Doe Protection order from Madras High Court last Tuesday  prior to its release barring any one from uploading the film or any part of it in any websites without  authorization of  the producers.

John Doe orders or Ashok Kumar Injunctions are granted against persons/ infringers whose identity is unknown at the time when injunction is sought. Tamil movie "3" was the first movie in India to obtain a  John Doe order which started the debate on utility of blocking the entire website containing pirated materials. Madras high court later came up with a clarification that only specific urls containing the film name are only hit by this order and not the entire website.

According to Times of India, R Subbiah J, on Tuesday issued an interim injunction restraining at least 12 websites and telecom companies from putting "Mirattal" or any part of the film online as well as  five John Doe's against prospective yet unidentified copyright infringers. The said orders are not applicable against uploading trailers or songs of the film.

Copy That: Jannat 2 in Copyright Controversy

This is not something new in the Bollywood history and specially when we talk about a renowned film camp like Vishesh Films. But this time, the act of copyright infringement is of a different style in the sense that the controversial movie Jannat - 2 is alleged to be based upon the script written by a Mumbai-based writer Kapil Chopra. 

Allegations. 

Before release of the movie Jannat -2, in May this year, Kapil Chopra filed a case of plagiarism against the Bhatts, the makers of Jannat 2, alleging them to have stolen his script for the same, which he had with the Film Writers Association way back in 2007.

In a court hearing in the month of July, it was revealed that Chopra had met Jannat 2's director Kunal Deshmukh a couple of times when he narrated his story, also he had left a bound copy of the script with the director. But he got no response from the director.

Remedy Granted. 

As a remedy granted by the Bombay High Court to the complainant, it ordered the Bhatts to deposit Rs 10 lakh, as the amount for the conditional order that they can release the satellite rights of Jannat 2.

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 Two persons were arrested by the Delhi Police for manufacturing and selling footwear in the brand name of PUMA.  Accused have been remanded to  police custody by  Delhi Court. Arrest was made following the complaint of representative of PUMA.

 A person by name Karan chopra a owner of the footwear shop has been released on bail. In  another search conducted on the shop owned by Manjeet Singh where a number of footwear were stored and  have been seized Ravi and Manjeet have disclosed names of other manufactures from whom they used to get the supply of this fake branded footwear. 

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No relief for ITM Trust in trademark infringement case

Bombay High court rejected an application for relief in a trademark infringement law suit filed by the educational trust ITM  and its trustees against Educate India Society.

ITM trust, a registered public trust engaged in educational activities has filed for an permanent injunction against Educate India Society for infringement of their trademark " Institute of Technology and Management" and "ITM". 

ITM Trust argues that they were registered with the charity commissioner since October 1993 and have established various educational institutions and offered various courses in the field of technology, management and their institutions were notified as ITM university by the Chattisgargh government and also  recognized by AICTE for several years.

ITM trustees claims that only recently they came to knew about the use of their registered trademark by Educate India Society, that too from a student who was seeking admission with their institute. They claim that since their trademark is registered and is still operative, the court shall grant them an injunction against TM infringement.

The defendants, Educate India society is also operating educational institutions since 1996 in the fields of technology, management and law and also have been notified as private university by the Haryana Government as ITM university in Gurgaon. Their institutions are also recognized by AICTE and UGC. 

Bombay High court Judge ,Justice Bhushan Gavai after considering all the relevant factors have rejected the injunction application stating that it is difficult to believe that students of this era seeking admission for higher education would be confused or deceived by any similarities in trademarks of both the parties.The students seeking admission for higher education are bound to look into all the credentials of the institutes concerned and should apply their mind to find the best institute of the basis of available information.

Find full judgement here 

RIM ordered to pay $147 million for patent infringement

San Francisco District court has ordered Researchers in Motion (RIM), makers of Blackberry to pay $147 million as damages for infringing patents of Mformation technologies. Mformation took Blackberry to court on an allegation of violating their patent on “remote management of device from server” which is used in blackberry mobiles.

Court ordered RIM to pay $8 per every mobile device already sold in use which amount to $147 million when summed up. Thankfully court didn’t take into consideration any of the current and future sales, which if taken up would have resulted in much higher damages.

In a statement, RIM said that it is disappointed by the outcome, and is evaluating its options.

"RIM has worked hard for many years to independently develop its leading edge Blackberry technology and industry leading intellectual property portfolio, and RIM does not believe that the Mforemation patent in question is valid"

This decision is the second biggest loss for RIM in patent infringement suits, after March 2006 settlement with NTP Inc
It would be interesting to watch how RIM proceeds with the case, whether to go for review or appeal or to settle the issue ignoring its current drop in market.

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