Indranath Gupta – Liability of internet intermediaries: the Indian experience

Research seminar – Tuesday 10 September 2019, 14:00-15:00, room W416

India has adopted a dual layered approach to deal with the liability of internet intermediaries for infringements of IP (copyright/trademark). The current debates float around two statutes—that is the Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA 2000) and the Copyright Act 1957 (CA 1957). Both these statutes (Section 79 and Section 52(1) [b][c]) have been amended on numerous occasions. In recent times, Christian Louboutin v Nakul Bajaj (2018) and MySpace v SCIL (2016) two judgements of the Delhi High Court have further clarified the scope of Section 79 of ITA 2000 and Section 52 (1)[b] & [c] of CA 1957. There is however enough haziness surrounding the safe harbour framework that India is likely adopt for different intermediaries. With fresh insights from the EU [Article 17 of 2019/790], it would be interesting to see if India’s approach changes appreciably in future.

This seminar attempts to look at comparable approaches concerning liability of internet intermediaries for infringements of intellectual property rights in India and EU.

Indranath Gupta is a Professor & Controller of Examinations at the Jindal Global Law School of O P Jindal Global University.   He is the Co-Director of Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition (JIRICO) and a Senior Fellow at the Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences (JIBS).

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