Eastern Book Company v D.B. Modak (2008)

Intellectual Property Rights II · Remedies Against Infringement of Copyright

Facts.

EBC copy-edited raw Supreme Court judgments (adding paragraph numbers, cross-references, formatting) and claimed copyright; a rival copied the edited versions.

Issue.

What degree of originality does a derivative/edited work need to attract copyright?

Held.

Originality requires skill and judgment — a “middle path” between the “sweat of the brow” and “modicum of creativity” tests. Mere copy-editing that is trivial gains no copyright, but inputs involving skill and judgment do.

Why it matters.

It settled the Indian test of originality for all literary works, including compilations and databases.

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