During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Hardik Choudhary, Associate, led a discussion on “Do Virtual Avatars in Metaverse Create Character Merchandising Issues?”. The session saw an insightful discussion on the metaverse and infringement of intellectual property rights in the virtual world. The discussion focused upon whether character merchandising rights of owners are affected in the metaverse, and explored the idea of integrating NFTs and virtual avatars to avoid such issues. The session concluded with a debate on the issue of virtual ownership of avatars in the metaverse and the liability of the users and the metaverse platforms.

ALG’s Sheja Ehtesham and Ashwani Balayan are attending the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) Annual Meeting 2022 in Washington D.C in person this year.

We are happy to be back to meeting with friends and clients in person again after 2 years. Please feel free to reach out if you would like to say hello, or catch up over a cup of coffee together.

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar – General IP’ (LIS-GIP) was conducted by Tanisha Agarwal, Associate, on “Can Digital Academic Libraries Fall Within the Fair Dealing Exception under Copyright Law?”. The seminar delved into the concepts of ‘course of instruction’, ‘non-commercial public library’ and ‘private or personal use including research’ which are provided as exceptions to infringement of copyright under the law. Reliance was placed on relevant judicial decisions to understand whether digital academic libraries fall within the ambit of fair dealing. The session concluded with an interesting discussion on the concept of ‘controlled digital lending’ and how an expansive and conjoint reading of Section 52(1) clauses (i) and (n ) provides ample scope for digital academic libraries to avail the fair dealing exception.

The presentation can be accessed here.

In their first in-person meeting in a long while, ALG’s Book Club members recently got together in the office to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro’s futuristic novel ‘Klara and the Sun’. The novel places readers inside the mind of a humanoid robot named Klara, an artificial friend designed for children. The discussion began with a dissection of various plot points and the narrative style, and then delved into how humans and AIs may deal with the feelings of compassion, faith, loneliness and fear in a rapidly evolving world.

The discussion concluded with a reflection on the meaning of humanity, and whether AIs may possibly end up being more ‘human’ than us in the future.

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar-General IP’ (LIS-GIP) was conducted by Shreya Kunwar, Trainee Associate, on “Whether the Relief of Rendition of Accounts can be Clubbed with the Relief of Damages in IP Disputes?”. The seminar explored the concept of rendition of accounts and the different types of damages that are granted by courts in IP disputes. The session specifically delved into the reliefs provided under Section 135(1), Trade Marks Act, 1999, and Section 55, Copyright Act, 1957, and how they may be sought in light of the judicial trend, as well as the circumstances in which these reliefs have been granted simultaneously. The session concluded with interesting questions on the scope of exceptional circumstances when the relief of rendition of accounts can be awarded by the courts and the demarcation of how these reliefs are provided at the discretion of the courts vis-à-vis the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and Copyright Act, 1957.

The presentation can be accessed here.