Plaintiff established prima facie case for copyright infringement against Defendants, warranting interim injunction due to imminent harm and established unauthorized use of software.

ORDER

[VIA VIDEO CONFERENCING]

I.A. 6895/2021 (for exemption)

1. Exemption allowed, subject to just exceptions.

2. The application stands disposed of.

CS(COMM) 248/2021

3. Let the plaint be registered as a suit.

4. Issue summons. Ms. Archana Sahadeva, learned counsel appearing on advance notice, accepts summons on behalf of the Defendants. Written statements to be filed by the Defendants within 30 days from today. Along with the written statements, the Defendants shall also file an affidavit of admission/denial of the documents of the Plaintiff, without which the written statements shall not be taken on record.

5. Liberty is given to the Plaintiff to file a replication within 15 days of the receipt of the written statement. Along with the replication, if any, filed by the Plaintiff, an affidavit of admission/denial of documents of the Defendants be filed by the Plaintiff, without which the replication shall not be taken on record. If any of the parties wish to seek inspection of any documents, the same shall be sought and given within these timelines.

6. List before the Joint Registrar for marking of exhibits on 30th July, 2021. It is made clear that any party unjustifiably denying documents would be liable to be burdened with costs.

7. List before Court on 20th September, 2021 for framing of issues thereafter.

I.A. 6893/2021 (u/O XI Rule 1 (4) r/w Section 151 of the CPC, 1908 for filing additional documents)

8. This is an application seeking leave to file additional documents under the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 (in short `Commercial Courts Act').

9. The Plaintiff, if they wish to file additional documents at a later stage, shall do so strictly as per the provisions of the Commercial Courts Act.

10. Accordingly, the application stands disposed of.

I.A. 6894/2021 (u/S 149 r/w Section 151 of the CPC, 1908 for exemption in filing the Court fees and One Time Process fees)

11. The present application under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (in short `CPC') on behalf of the Plaintiff seeks exemption in filing the court fees and one time process fees.

12. The application is allowed, subject to the Plaintiff filing court fees and one time process fees within two weeks from the day the lockdown restrictions imposed by the Government of NCT of Delhi are lifted and the facilities for issuance of court fees stamps is resumed.

13. The application stands disposed of.

I.A. 6892/2021 (u/O XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 r/w Section 151 of the CPC)

14. The Plaintiff has filed the present application for permanent injunction seeking restraining of the infringement of copyright, delivery, rendition of accounts of profits, and damages, in respect of the Plaintiff's software programs NUKE and NUKE X.

15. The case as set out in the plaint is that the Plaintiff is the owner of the copyright in its software programmes including "NUKE", "NUKE X", "NUKE STUDIO" and "NUKE RENDER". The software programs and all user instruction manuals included with it are "literary works" capable of protection within the meaning of the Copyright Act, 1957 and the same have also been created/developed and written for the Plaintiff by its employees, during the course of their employment with the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff is the "first owner" of the copyright as defined under the Copyright Act, 1957 in respect of the aforesaid software. NUKE is Plaintiff's flagship software programme for rendering visual effects. The said