MNCs coming to India to settle copyright cases : SC Judge

The perception that it took long time for legal matters to be settled in India is a thing of the past...the High Courts at Delhi and Mumbai are flooded with cases of Copyright and Intellectual property rights, Justice Bhandari said yesterday while inaugurating a seminar on 'Copyright Law'.

"Many multinationals have turned to India to settle their disputes. Microsoft alone has 25 litigations filed in Delhi High Court," Justice Bhandari said at the seminar organised by Indian Copyright Research Society.

By and large, the executive in India had always implemented Judicial orders although it may have taken time to decide the cases. However, it has been a happy situation in so far as Intellectual Property Rights cases were concerned, the Supreme Court Judge told the seminar organised mainly to discuss the Proposed Copyright Amendment Bill 2010.

Justice Bhandari said the Copyright Act was introduced in India in 1957 by the Government as it wanted to protect the works of legendary poet Ravindranath Tagore. Since then, the Act has been amended five times, the last one in 1999.

The proposed Copyright Amendment Bill 2010 aimed at removing operational difficulties and took into consideration ways to protect the misuse of modern technology and internet.