Author: Abhishek Yadav, Amity Law School, Noida, Amity University Noida.
ABSTRACT
These days, it’s critical to safeguard intellectual property rights to preserve the rightful ownership of original inventors and intellectual property owners. Thanks to advancements in technology, it is now easier than ever to violate an owner’s rights, steal, or damage their intellectual property.
Since electronic technology is closely linked to intellectual properties like copyright, trademarks, designs, and circuit designs, more affirmative protective laws are needed to safeguard inventions. Protecting the legitimate owners of intellectual property from theft and financial harm is crucial in the modern, globalized world.
The majority of protection for intellectual property comes in the form of temporary exclusive rights. Intellectual property owners have the exclusive right to use their property at the expense of third parties. After that, the general public has public access to the inventions and creations. There are various types of intellectual property and corresponding terms of protection. In the knowledge-based economy of today, intellectual property has increased in value. Therefore, in order to give adequate legal protection and redress against those who violate intellectual property rights in cyberspace, more affirmative defense laws are required.
This article will focus on the interface between IPR and cyberspace. Also the dealing of issues like cybersqatting, cyberbullying, cyber theft will be discussed in order to check the competency of IPR.
Keyword: Intellectual property, cyberspace, copyright, artistic creations
INTRODUCTION
Most intellectual property rights are granted as exclusive rights for a predetermined amount of time. The ability to use an intellectual property right exclusively, to the exclusion of others, belongs to its owners. . Protecting intellectual property rights empowers and permits developers and inventors to use their creative endeavors for the benefit of society. It grants the producer the sole right to creative and innovative works. After that, the general public can access the inventions and creations publicly. There are various types of intellectual property and corresponding terms of protection. In the knowledge-based economy of today, intellectual property has increased in value..
Since e-commerce and e-governance have grown so rapidly on digital platforms over the past ten years, cyberspace has established unexpected relationships with a wide range of disciplines, the most important of which is law. The core of this information technology ecosystem is content that is electronic and readable as an electronic record.
Nevertheless, while the content of all kinds, including elements of copyright, trademark, and patent, became widely available to everyone via digital platforms, there also were instances of intellectual property violations due to content theft, which exacerbated piracy and infringed upon the rights arising from such intellectual properties.
As a result, the need to safeguard digital content was recognized, and the Cyber Law legal framework was created to handle any issues pertaining to the unauthorized use or theft of intellectual property in cyberspace.
IPR AND CYBERSPACE
Cyberspace is the virtual environment that computers on the Internet that are networked together create. Cyberspace is an imaginary electronic area that is not constrained by distance or other physical constraints. The phrase was first used by William Gibson to characterize a sophisticated virtual reality network in his book Neuromancer. Data can be exchanged, modified, and stored online.
The adage “information is control” is even more true in the era of information.The relationship between cyberspace and intellectual property is complex and dynamic, changing as technology and creativity in the digital age advance. Cyberspace has a big impact on how intellectual property is created, protected, and enforced. Cyberspace is the connection of computer networks and digital content creation. The digital age has revolutionized intellectual property (IP). While the internet creates new avenues for creators to share their work, it also presents challenges in enforcing copyright and protecting trade secrets. Easy online distribution can lead to piracy, with platforms struggling to balance user freedom with creator rights. E-commerce highlights trademark issues like cybersquatting, requiring new legal responses. However, emerging technologies like blockchain offer potential solutions for managing and protecting IP in this digital world.
New issues and chances relating to intellectual property in cyberspace will arise as technology develops further. The development, enforcement, and protection of intellectual property may be impacted by the emergence of virtual reality, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. As such, the relationship between cyberspace and intellectual property is always changing. The protection of intellectual property rights is facing serious challenges as a result of the growing opportunities for creativity and innovation.
ISSUES RELATED TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND CYBERSPACE
The number of inquiries concerning the protection of intellectual property rights on the Internet has skyrocketed since the introduction of the Internet and information media. However, understanding how the Internet affects the field of intellectual property rights is essential to protecting intellectual property rights on the Internet.
Sometimes someone who is not the owner of the information shares it online, especially private information. As a result, someone violates someone else’s privacy and profits from their creation. Intellectual property rights provide protection for these kinds of rights. The major issues related to the infringement of intellectual property rights can be categorized in the following ways-
∙ Copyright Infringement
The use of works covered by copyright law in any manner without the owner’s consent is known as copyright infringement.
Issues related to copyright infringement are as follows:
- Uploading & Downloading – A person violates copyright if they upload protected content without authorization. Unauthorized downloads of movies, music, or video games are of poor quality and are punishable by the Indian Copyright Act. Even in cases where the person uploading the copied content has not profited financially, they are still accountable for the offense. When an uploader uses creativity to update, alter, or modify copyrighted content, that uploader bears responsibility for the content.
b) Linking- Linking is the ability to visit a third-party website simply by clicking on the location of the linking site—you don’t need to enter a search engine or location data.
Links typically take the form of prominent text, an underline, highlighted text, or an image. There are two types of Linking:
• Surface linking: Surface linking is the practice of linking to a website’s home page.
• Deep linking: Refers to the circumstance in which a web link goes directly to an internal page within a website rather than the home page.
- Framing- Regarding the interpretation of derivation and adaptation under Section 14(a)(vi) of the Copyrights Act of 1957, it is also a matter of concern and a topic of legal debate. The framer only gives the user browser instructions on how to retrieve copyright content that is retrieved from the owner’s website by the user’s browser; it is not accountable for copying, communicating, or distributing the copyright. The relevant legal question is whether it is considered derivation or adaptation under the law to take certain elements from the copyright owner’s multimedia setting and combine them with other elements to create something original.
∙ Trademark Infringement
A trademark can now exist in a variety of online formats, such as a domain name, which is simply the name of a website that serves as an internet protocol address and is a convenient way to remember a long, complicated number. Because of this, domain names are often created to represent an organization’s trademark and are simple to remember.
a) Cybersquatting: This type of cybercrime entails emulating a domain name in a way that can fool users of the original, well-known domain name to profit from that. This is done by registering, trading, or selling a well-known domain name to profit from its goodwill.
A domain name dispute occurs when multiple parties contend they have the right to register the same domain name, and when a trademark that has already been registered is registered by a party other than the owner.
b) Meta tagging: It is a tactic to get more people to visit a website by adding a word to the keyword section, which causes the search engine to recognize the word and send users to the website even though the website has nothing to do with it. When a website incorporates meta tags from other websites, it could be considered trademark infringement and negatively impact the other website’s business.
c) Reverse domain name hijacking: The domain owner may give up control of the domain to the trademark owner out of concern for expensive litigation fees and court cases. The majority of the time, wealthy businesses and organizations engage in reverse cybersquatting, or smaller companies and individuals who lack the capital to take on the larger corporations are the victims.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
One of the most famous cited lawsuits worldwide for digital copyright infringements is of the Napster Case, whereby the defendants filed a lawsuit against the plaintiff for P2P file sharing. Immediately, Napster offered software that allowed the user to share media files (MP3 files) from his computer with another Napster user. The music companies have been requesting USD $1,000,000 for each copyright-protected song that is downloaded through Napster since the Napster Inc. lawsuit was filed. Following a settlement between the parties, Napster was forced to give the settling parties a third of all future profits, and the company closed its doors in 2000.
The first Indian case that extensively discussed issues of domain name disputes vis-à-vis cybersquatting was Yahoo Inc. v Akash Arora (78(1999) DLT 285), wherein the defendant claimed that in order to prevent confusion with the plaintiff’s website, which was registered in more than 69 countries, they had included a disclaimer on the website and used a word from a common dictionary. The court decided that despite these disclaimers, links with Yahoo’s original website—which was founded on a well-known and distinctive trademark—would still need to be made.
Subsequently, in the case of Tata Sons Ltd. &Anr.v. ArnoPalmen&Anr, the Delhi High Court heard a historic case involving cybersquatting and domain name disputes. The plaintiffs requested permanent injunctions to prevent the defendant from using the domain name “www.tatainfotech.in” or any other domain name that is confusingly similar to their registered trademark, which they claimed was registered solely for the purpose of making illicit profits by commercially exploiting it. On the other hand, the defendant contended that “Tata Infotech” had been their trade name since 1997 and asserted that their successful business had earned them goodwill in the industry. The court determined that because of the widespread use of e-commerce and cyberspace, similarity in domain names could in fact cause traffic to be diverted from one website to another and could result in financial loss for the registered right-holders of the original trademark. Therefore, it was decided that the contested website had been registered in bad faith and with false intentions, with the only goal being to profit from the use of the plaintiff’s registered trademark.
Similarly in, Tata Sons Limited vs. Monu Kosuri & others, The plaintiff’s well-known brand name, Tata, was registered by the defendant, a well-known cybersquatter, under several different domain names. The plaintiff was granted an ad interim injunction after it was decided that Internet domain names are more than just internet addresses and should be protected on par with trademarks.
In TicketMaster V. Microsoft, Because the defendant on his website “Seattle Sidewalks” had placed links on the plaintiff’s homepage, TicketMaster filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. The respondent was accused by the plaintiff of engaging in deceptive trade mark practices and dilution. Users were prevented from reading the plaintiff’s promotional materials on TicketMaster’s home page because the deep linking directed users to TicketMaster ordering pages rather than the company’s homepage. Even though the two parties were able to resolve their differences, the topic of hyper-linking and related intellectual property is becoming more and more important.
CONCLUSION
As “Bill Gates” rightly said, “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow”. We need to grow with the speed of growing Internet network.
The boundaries of the cyberspace realm are unknowable, and any updated data on the internet is open to manipulation by infringers. However, the expansion of the Internet has allowed many creators to post their work online for public consumption and has also given them a boost due to the rewards that their creations have brought. However, such information is being misrepresented and violated, and the creator of that information is not receiving any just compensation for their labor.
In the IT Act provisions are present related to cybercrime in the society as well as in organisation. However, the IT Act of 2000 contains loopholes when it comes to IPR. Regarding copyright and trademark infringement in cyberspace, the Act offers no particular remedies. Regarding matters pertaining to intellectual property rights, cyberstalking, cyberdefamation, etc., the IT Act of 2000 is ineffective. Legislation pertaining to intellectual property rights protection, such as the Indian Trademark Act of 1999 and the Copyright Act of 1957, is also inadequate in addressing issues that arise from online trademark and copyright infringement. Though the Copyright Act protects computer programs, it does not provide remedies for online software piracy.
Enforcing regulations against cyberspace infringement of intellectual property rights is a very difficult task. However, it is a challenge of the digital age that we must accept in order to support and advance the developing e-information society.
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