India: Copyright

Indian courts have, in recent times, increasingly been confronted with novel legal questions arising from the intersection of AI-generated outputs and the rights that may subsist in, or be affected by, such outputs.

India’s semiconductor ambitions are usually discussed in terms of fabs, packaging units, and PLI-linked investment. Less visible, but equally important for companies actually designing chips, is the legal regime that protects the layout itself — the specific arrangement of transistors, interconnects, and circuit elements that makes a chip work and that took months (or years) of design effort to create.

The Delhi High Court's reference to a Larger Bench examines a fundamental question: when does online commercial activity establish territorial jurisdiction in intellectual property disputes? As digital commerce erases traditional geographical boundaries, courts must determine whether website accessibility, targeted advertising, or completed transactions create sufficient legal nexus with a particular forum.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is scheduled to be held from June 11 to July 19, 2026, and with the advent of any major sporting event, the online piracy sites also mushroom around the same time.

A decision of a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in Dabur India Limited v. Emami Limited[1], pronounced on May 22, 2026, is a significant addition to Indian passing off jurisprudence concerning trade dress protection. The dispute arose from Dabur’s launch of Cool King Thanda Tael and Emami’s allegation that the packaging and overall get-up of Dabur’s product is deceptively similar to the long-established trade dress of Navratna Ayurvedic Oil that is sold by Emami.

In a significant ruling that underscores the importance of correctly aligning the choice of statute with the nature of the grievance, the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in Sandip S/O Ramashankar Dube vs The State of Maharashtra, quashed a First Information Report and consequent criminal proceedings that had been registered under the Copyright Act, 1957, in a matter involving the sale of counterfeit branded apparel.

As the FIFA World Cup 2026 enters its final stages, with the third-place play-off and the final between defending champions Argentina and Spain expected to attract millions of viewers worldwide, the focus is no longer confined to the action on the pitch. Even before the tournament commenced, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., had secured the exclusive media rights for India, by approaching the Delhi High Court seeking protection against rogue websites and digital platforms expected to illegally stream the tournament. The proceedings demonstrate that acquiring exclusive broadcasting rights is only the first step, with effective protection against digital piracy being equally essential.

In an interim ruling, the Delhi High Court has examined whether the use of copyrighted news content for LLM training and output generation amounts to infringement or qualifies as fair dealing.

Generative artificial intelligence (“Gen-AI”) is an idea whose time has come. It is no more the future of technology but its present. Gen-AI is today being used in every aspect of our professional, business, and personal lives. As with the advent of every technological development, the world is finding itself in a vacuum on existing regulations to streamline and regulate the scope of such technology.