JUDGMENT

ANISH DAYAL, J.

1. This petition has been filed under Section 50 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (“Copyright Act”) seeking rectification of copyright and removal of the registration granted by No. L-79443/2018 for the literary work titled “Virtual Expo” dated 12th December, 2018 in favour of respondent no.1 (“impugned copyright registration”).

2. Respondent no.1 has not appeared in the matter since the commencement of proceedings on 14th July, 2022 and more than a dozen dates thereafter which were scheduled by the Court. Therefore, by order dated 05th July, 2023, the respondent no.1 was proceeded ex parte.

3. Submissions were made on behalf of petitioner and the Registrar of Copyrights (“Respondent no. 2”)

Factual Background

4. The issue involves the impugned copyright registration in the following document titled “Virtual Expo”, which has been extracted hereunder:

5. The petitioner is a private limited company and an integral part of a multi-national group of companies having operations in various parts of the world. It claims to be the country’s leading exhibition organiser and is also responsible for a portfolio of events, including organizing conferences and seminars.

6. Since 2006, petitioner claims to have grown to hosting multiple large-scale events and conferences across the country every year. These events, conferences, seminars, exhibitions and expositions enable and empower trade and commerce across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, food, hospitality, jewellery, healthcare, transport and logistics etc.

7. In the year 2020, the petitioner, in association with their partner Bologna Fiere, was to organize an event titled “Cosmoprof India”. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the nation-wide lockdown that followed, petitioner’s business came to a standstill and the petitioner, therefore, commenced preparation to organise events and conferences online.

8. Consequently, “Cosmoprof” was promoted as a virtual exposition event and the words “Virtual Expo” were used as a literal and generic description of the event. The event was conducted on 05th August, 2020 and was a huge success, as per petitioner.

9. Subsequently, various event catalogues, social media posts and social media hashtags describing the event as a “Virtual Expo” were disseminated.

10. On 25th October, 2020, petitioner received a legal notice from respondent no.1 claiming to be the owner of the impugned copyright registration.

11. Respondent no.1 was claiming exclusive rights to use the word “Virtual Expo” i.e. expo exhibition through virtual means. Damages of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakhs Only) was also demanded by respondent no.1. Therefore, the petitioner claims to be a person aggrieved under Section 50 of the Copyright Act.

12. What needs to be considered is whether the impugned copyright registration is amenable to continue on the register and is copyrightable in the first place. There can be no doubt that the petitioner is a “person aggrieved” under Section 50 of the Copyright Act having been sent a legal notice by respondent no.1, who sought restraint and damages for using the word “Virtual Expo” as also for conducting any virtual expositions. Clearly, the petitioner has a real and tangible interest in seeking rectification of the copyright register and removal of the impugned registration.

13. A perusal of the impugned copyright registration would make it incontrovertibly clear that it is “a literary work” defined under Section 2 (1)(o) of the Copyright Act. Copyright subsists in such work under Section 13 of the Copyright Act and Section 17 of the Act specifies that the author of the work shall be the first owner of the copyright.

14. What has been registered is clearly just a document which seeks to describe the concept of virtual expositions. Essentially, the registered document states that a virtual expo has certain tangible benefits, inter alia, that it is a sustainable solution, is efficient, can be used for various industry field