Plaintiff Co. is leading publisher in field of tax, corporate & commercial laws. It published on-line electronic medium. Defendant website copied it contents & published on its website. Plaintiff filed suit for copyright infringement. HC held, Perusal of above cases shows that head notes of defendant almost similar to that of plaintiff. Thus, plaintiff has been able to make out strong prima facie case for grant of ad interim injunction.-500210
Facts in brief:
1. Plaintiff is a company incorporated in 1972 under the Companies Act, 1956 and is a leading publisher known for high standard, accuracy and timely publishing of information and whose publications in the field of tax, corporate and commercial laws are well known and popular with its target readership comprising of Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, Company Secretaries, Finance, Tax and Legal Professionals, Judicial Officers, students studying for these courses, Enforcement Officials, competent administrative authorities and other Government functionaries.
2. With the advent of the internet/web-technology in India, in 2007 the plaintiff also commenced the use of the on-line electronic medium for publishing and selling its publications (including case law reports on subscription basis) and online business of now constitutes a significant part of its business activity.
3. Since 2010, the plaintiff has been publishing case law reports (decisions with its head notes) on its website www.taxmann.com which is available to its paid subscribers.
4. Defendant is a private limited company which owns the website www.casansaar.com. The case of the plaintiff against the defendant is that towards the end of July, 2015 it came to the knowledge of the plaintiff that its editorial comments/ head notes (factual summary and case ratio given under the 'Held' section) had been fully copied by the defendant in large number of cases and these were available on its free website of the defendant.
5. As defendant failed to comply with the notice. Plaintiff filed suit for infringement.
HC held as under:
6. Perusal of the above cases shows that the head notes of the defendant are almost similar to that of the plaintiff. Thus, the plaintiff has been able to make out a strong prima facie case for grant of ad interim injunction. Hence, till the next date, the defendant is restrained from continuing with the infringement of plaintiff's copyright in its editorial comments/case Head-notes. They are directed to remove the existing infringing material from its website www.casansaar.com, which may amount to infringement of plaintiff's copyright as claimed.
Case Reference-Taxmann Allied Services Pvt. Ltd. vs Casansaar Web Solution Pvt. Ltd.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI