PlayGambo And OVH Served Legal Notice For Copyright Infringement Of Perry4Law

Online gaming and online gambling laws in India are still evolving. Even courts in India are not very keen to bring certainty to these controversial fields. Recently, the Supreme Court of India refused to decide about the legality of online poker and online rummy in India. The central government has also not given any opinion about the legality of these fields. As a result Indian online rummy and online poker websites are in legal tangles.

The story does not ends here. Almost all of the online poker and online rummy websites in India are operating on the wrong side of Indian laws especially the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). Another disturbing trend is the increasing copyright violation by online gaming and gambling websites in India. In another such incidence, Perry4Law Law Firm has sent legal notice and DMCA complaint to PlayGambo  and its hosting provider OVH.

Our Twitter handle at @ptlbindia has also covered this issue at here1 and here2. OVH is very active in providing dedicated games serves with anti DDoS protection. However, OVH must also be clear regarding its business model so that no cyber criminals are encouraged or harboured due to its polices and commercial interests.

OVH has replied back to our notices and has forwarded our notices to the administrators of PlayGambo. We have also sought a clarification from OVH regarding its service terms and dealing with cyber criminals and copyright infringers by OVH. We would share the response and action on the part of OVH very soon as the same is still awaited till the time of this post. A positive response from OVH is also essential to generate and retain trust among the gaming industry that OVH is very keenly targeting.

PokerNation And Fortuity Gaming Solutions Pvt Ltd Served Legal Notice For Copyright Violation Of Perry4Law

Copyright violation is a serious offence in India especially when it is combined with the offences punishable under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). The IT Act 2000 has prescribed cyber law due diligence (pdf) and internet intermediary obligations that all stakeholders are required to comply with. Online gaming and gambling websites are no exception to these compliances. Similarly rules apply to mobile gaming stakeholders of India. As on date we have no dedicated online gaming and online gambling laws of India but there are many laws whose legal compliances are mandatory for such online gaming and gambling businesses.

Perry4Law Law Firm is occasionally consulted for online gaming, online gambling, online card games, online games, online lotteries, etc related legal issues. We have extended our legal expertise to many national and international clients who have complied with our engagement terms. However, some unscrupulous individuals and companies have tried to steal our copyrighted terms and conditions, privacy policy, disclaimer, etc (legal documents) in the past. We have been ignoring these things in the past but from now onwards we have decided to take these copyright and cyber law violations seriously.

We have been sending legal notices and DMCA complaints to such individuals, companies and hosting service providers who are party to such copyright infringement and cyber law violations whether by design or unintentionally. The idea is to protect our copyrighted legal documents and to safeguard our own financial interests.

Now we have also decided to make a public database of such violators so that information in this regard can be collected at a single place. Our first post in this regard is regarding the website of https://pokernation.com/ that is carrying our copyrighted legal documents without our approval and without complying with our engagement terms. The same has been done in association with Fortuity Gaming Solutions Pvt Ltd. We have served DMCA complaint and legal notices to Pokernation, Fortuity Gaming Solutions Pvt Ltd and their Directors/principal officers. We have also intimated them through our Twitter account at @ptlbindia. You can see these tweets at here1 and here2. Further legal actions, if required, would also be taken against the guilty person/company.

We would update our readers about this copyright violation episode by Pokernation and Fortuity from time to time. Any individual or company interested in seeking our legal assistance may contact us in this regard and establish a client attorney relationship.

Cabinet Approves The Draft National IPR Policy Of India

Indian government has been preparing the draft national IPR policy of India for some time. Perry4Law Organisation (P4LO) has suggested that the proposed IPR policy of India must be techno legal in nature. P4LO has also provided its suggestions regarding the proposed Trade Marks Rules 2015 of India whereby we have suggested (pdf) for establishment of a strong and efficient trademark regime in India. The crux of all these discussions is that the proposed IPR policy of India must be technology driven and beneficial to small and medium enterprises, e-commerce players and entrepreneurs.

It has now been reported that the Cabinet has approved the national intellectual property rights (IPR) policy with a view to promoting creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. The aim is to create awareness about economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs among all sections of society, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday while briefing reporters about Thursday's Cabinet decisions. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will be the nodal department to co-ordinate, guide and oversee implementation and future development of IPR’s in India.

The minister also said that by 2017, the window for trademark registration will be brought down to one month. This means that starting 2017, trademark registration will take only one month. P4LO's suggestion number (11) on the proposed trademark rules recommended this requirement. We suggested that the proposed rule is a golden opportunity for the Indian Government/Registrar to speed up the trademark registration procedure that is suffering from backlog as on date.

We also recommend that the Registrar must not "discriminate" between those applicants who have paid additional fees for expedition and those who have applied through normal course of action. If the Registrar discriminates between those who have paying capacity and those who do not have such capacity, it would unnecessarily create hindrances before the small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs. Indian government seems to have accepted these suggestions of P4LO.

According to Jaitley, there are seven objectives that guided the policy mechanism, which include IPR public awareness, stimulation of generation of IPRs, need for strong and effective laws and strengthening enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms to combat infringements. The policy also puts a premium on enhancing access to healthcare, food security and environmental protection. It is expected to lay the future road map for intellectual property in India, besides putting in place an institutional mechanism for implementation, monitoring and review.

The policy recognizes that India has a well-established TRIPS-compliant legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs, which meets its international obligations while utilizing the flexibilities provided in the international regime to address its developmental concerns. It reiterates India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement.

Proposed Trade Mark Rules 2015 What Business Houses And E-Commerce Websites Need To Know

Readers of our blogs must be aware that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, has issued the Draft Trade Marks Rules, 2015 (PDF) for public comments on 17^th November 2015. Perry4Law Organisation (P4LO) and Perry4Law Law Firm have already provided an analysis of the proposed Trade Marks Rules 2015 Of India (PDF). Various stakeholders can read the same from the above mentioned link.

Trademarks are not given much importance in India by business houses and individuals. Brand management and intellectual property rights protection should be on the priority list of top management and they must be part of corporate policies. Domain names must be adequately safeguarded and protected by business houses and e-commerce websites and companies as well.

Trademark and brand protection requires a well drafted and properly executed strategy. This starts even before the business venture or e-commerce website is launched. Of course, e-commerce laws are also required to be complied with simultaneously. As on date, most of the e-commerce website owners are neither following the laws of India nor are they paying any attention to trademark protection.

It is very important that business houses, individuals and e-commerce websites must be aware of the proposed trademark rules 2015. Some of the salient features of the proposed trade mark rules 2015 are as follows:

(1) The forms relating to trademarks have been significantly reduced. This would help in reducing the unnecessary documentation and their conversion into electronic format.

(2) The filing fees have been doubled with little correlation with the proposed trademark services. There seems to be no direct relationship between the increased fees and the nature and quality of services proposed to be offered by the trademark registry.

(3) Time bound performance on the part of trademark registry is missing from the proposed rules.

(4) The proposed rules have not given emphasis upon e-delivery of trademark services in India. This would be a serious jolt to the Digital India project of Indian government that is already suffering from many shortcomings and weaknesses.

(5) Fees concessions for e-filings have been suggested by the proposed rules. This is an indirect method to force the stakeholders to adopt e-filing instead of paper filing. However, Indian government needs to spread awareness about e-filing along with providing better e-filing facilities.

(6) Well known trademarks have again been recognised by the proposed rules. However, there is an urgent need to draft suitable guidelines to deal with well known trademarks in India.

(7) More stringent requirements have been prescribed for establishing prior use by the trademark applicants.

(8) Provisions for expeditious disposal of applications with additional fees has been retained. However, expeditious disposal of trademark applications must be the norm irrespective of the fact of additional payment of fees. The same is missing as on date.

We hope our readers would find this update useful. We also hope that business houses, e-commerce websites and individuals would actively take part in strengthening of their intellectual property rights in general and trademark in particular.

Proposed US Rulemaking For Section 1201 Exemptions

United States (U.S.) is currently involved in a rulemaking exercise that would grant exemptions from prohibition against circumvention of technological measures protecting copyrighted works. If this rulemaking is successful, it would allow exemption to certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.

IPR Helpdesk of Perry4Law Organisation and PTLB has covered this issue here. Further updates on this topic would also be posted on this article as well. You may also check the Twitter account of IPR Helpdesk India in this regard for intellectual property rights (IPRs) related updates from India and abroad.

The IPR Helpdesk of India was launched in the year 2007 when it celebrated the renowned World IP Day of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Some of the public awareness initiatives of IPR Helpdesk of India include celebration of WIPO Week-2007(Please read here1 and here2 in this regard), providing of Intellectual Property Rights Trends in India-2007, celebration of World IP Day 2008 Of WIPO as WIPO Week- 2008, celebration of World IP Day 2009 Of WIPO, suggestions on proposed rulemaking by United State Copyright office for Section 1201 exemptions to prohibition against circumvention of technological measures protecting copyrighted works, etc.

The IPR Helpdesk of India would provide its comments on the abovementioned topic and the same would be posted here one by one. This is in continuation of Perry4Law Organisation’s commitment to spread public awareness in the field of IPRs in general and techno legal fields in particular. We hope various stakeholders would find our initiatives useful.

WTO Settles Trade Dispute Between India And US Regarding Certain Steel Products

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has recently settled a trade dispute between India and United States that partially covered the interests of both countries. The dispute at WTO pertained to imposition of countervailing measures on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India.

The final report of the Appellate Body at WTO has been released on 8th December 2014. Our readers and other stakeholders can read the document titled United States – Countervailing Measures on Certain Hot-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from India – AB-2014-7 -Report of the Appellate Body (PDF) for more details. A summary of the same has also been made available by IPR Helpdesk of Perry4Law and PTLB as WTO Summary of the Dispute Settlement of Dispute No DS436 between India and US (PDF).

This decision is a mixed one where India prevailed over U.S. on few issues while U.S. prevailed over India on others. Nevertheless it is a big relief for Indian steel exporters who were facing uncertainties till now.

US has been showing its discomfort with the Indian IP regime whereas India has been steadily maintaining that its IP laws are in strict conformity with India’s international obligations under the WTO and TRIPS Agreement.

Nevertheless, India has decided to formulate the national IPR policy of India to alleviate the fears of US and other countries. We at Perry4Law and Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB) believe that the proposed IPR policy of India must also include technology aspects as well to be more effective.

These recent developments have resulted in the acceptance of India position regarding its international IP protection obligations to some extent. Even US has also softened its stand in this regard and this issue may not be discussed during the US President Obama’s visit to India.

National IPR Policy Of India And Technology Issues

Indian government is in the process of formulating the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) Policy of India and preliminary formalities have already been completed in this regard. A group of experts have been brought together in the form of a think tank that would assist the government in this regard.

We at Perry4Law and Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB) welcome this move of Indian government and we wish and hope that the proposed national IPR policy of India would be released very soon. With the experts on the board, the proposed IPR policy would be drafted with best intentions and in the most appropriate manner.

We also hope and presume that the think tank would also consider the technology aspects of intellectual property rights while drafting the policy document. For instance, issues pertaining to domain name dispute resolution, cyber squatting, online copyright violations and their redressal, pirated TV broadcasting, industrial espionage, e-books, anti piracy redressal mechanism, online brands infringements and their management, international exhaustion of trademarks,  challenges of new GTLDs, etc must also be considered while formulating the proposed national IPR policy of India.

Public awareness about IPRs protection and management in India is very low. At time companies and individuals take actions that are clearly illegal. Similarly, many times stakeholders are not aware that they are actually violating the IPRs of others. In many cases IPR protection under patent law of India is lost for improper handling of the product to be patented. Conflict of laws in cyberspace also requires compliance with laws of other jurisdictions to get appropriate relief.

IPR Helpdesk of Perry4Law has been spreading public awareness about IPRs in India and abroad since 2005. We believe that there is an urgent need to reform Indian IP laws keeping in mind the use and impact of technology upon them. The proposed national IPR policy of India also needs to cater technological issues of IPR in India. We hope the same would be achieved for the larger benefit of all stakeholders.