In this case a petition was filed under Section 50 of the Copyright Act, 1957 for expunction of a registered copyright mark on the grounds of lack of originality and deceptively similar to the mark of the Petitioner.
Standard of comparison in copyright law are quite different from those in trade mark law. In trade mark law, prior user is of paramount relevant. The same has little significance in the copyright law. Burden of proof on the complainant to proof the respondent had copied his pre-existing work.
The Hon’ble High Court held that there is clear violation of Section 15 (2) of the Act (appended herewith for ease of reference) by the Respondent as in his written statement it is mentioned that he has done extensive expenditure over a long period to promote his products bearing the impugned label and so the Registrar shall expunge the impugned entry from the register.
Source: 2010 (43) PTC 341 (CB)
Section 15 of the Copyright Act
(1) Copyright shall not subsist under this act in any design which is registered under the Designs Act, 1911.
(2) Copyright in any design, which is capable of being registered under the Designs Act, 1911, but which has not been so registered, shall cease as soon as any article to which the design has been applied has been reproduced more than fifty times by an industrial process by the owner of the copyright, or, with his licence, by any other person.