DEVENDRA SOMABHAI NAIK Vs. ACCURATE TRANSHEAT PVT LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present is an appeal under Section 72 of the Copy Right Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") against the order dated 4/6/2004 passed by the Copy Right Board (at New Delhi) in Case No. 1 of 2001.

(2.) Short facts leading to the present appeal are that the present respondent Messrs Accurate Transheat made an application under section 15 (2) of the Act requesting the Board to direct deletion of the Registration at Serial No. A-519109/92. The submission was what the alleged artistic work which in fact was a design for production of a machine having been used for fifty times for manufacturing particular articles in view of sub-sec. (2) of section 15 of the Act the registration should be brought to an end.

(3.) The present appellant in response to the notice appeared before the Copy Right Board and submitted that the item in dispute was not a design and even if it was a design they were not reproducing designs, but in fact on the basis of the knowledge derived from the design they were manufacturing machines and as they did not reproduce the said design and as they were manufacturing typical machines registration under section 15(2) of the Act should not be cancelled. The Board took the view that reproduction of the design would not mean paper reproduction but will have to be given its intelligible meaning and it ultimately held that as the machines on the basis of the said design were admittedly being manufactured more than 170 per year, sub-sec. (2) of section 15 of the Act shall cease to be effective.