STANDARD CORPORATION INDIA LTD. Vs. TRACTORS AND FARM EQUIPMENT LTD. REPRESENTED BY ITS GENERAL MANAGER (LEGAL SERVICES), MR. T. NARAYANAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD the learned counsels appearing for the parties concerned.

(2.) THIS Original Side Appeal has been filed against the order, dated 1.8.2012, made in A. No. 4618 of 2010, in C.S. No. 602 of 2007. The Civil Suit in C.S. No. 602 of 2007, had been filed by the plaintiff in the said suit, the respondent in the present appeal, under Order IV Rule 1 of the Original Side Rules of the High Court of Judicature at Madras and Order VII Rule 1 of the Civil Procedures Code, 1908, read with Sections 51, 55 and 62 of the Copyrights Act, 1957.

(3.) THE appellant herein had filed an application in Application No. 4618 of 2010, praying for the dismissal of the civil suit, in C.S. No. 602 of 2007, stating that the said suit, filed by the respondent herein, is not maintainable, in view of the statutory bar for the filing of the suit, under Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957. It had been further stated that the respondent had stated in the plaint filed in the suit that the drawings, which are qualified as artistic work belongs to the plaintiff, exclusively. It had also been stated that they had been used over 100 times, prior to the filing of the said suit. It had also been stated that, under section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957, the copyright, in respect of any design, which is capable of being registered under the Designs Act, 1911, and not so registered shall cease as soon as any article to which it applies has been reproduced more than 50 times, by any industrial process. It is an admitted fact that the design, in respect of which the respondent has made a claim, had been used more than 50 times. Therefore, the suit filed by the respondent, in C.S. No. 602 of 2007, is statutorily barred, under Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957.