Intex to pay Rs 7,09,000 fine to Microsoft

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High court has ordered Intex Technologies (India) Ltd to pay a sum of Rs 7,09,000 as legal cost to Microsoft to settle Microsoft's legal claims.

In November 2004, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd had instituted a civil law suit against Intex, manufacturer and dealer of computers and computer peripherals, in the Delhi High Court for violation of its copyrights and trademarks.

According to the press release, earlier to the suit filing, Microsoft, through an investigation, obtained credible evidence of Intex's infringing activities whereby Intex was loading/installing unlicensed versions of Microsoft's software programs onto the computers sold to the customers, free of cost.

The Delhi High Court on the basis of the evidence presented, granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction against Intex Technologies restraining them from violating Microsoft copyrights in their software programs. The court also appointed court commissioners to visit Intex's sales offices in Delhi and Mumbai for the purposes of inspection, search, seizure and to seal the hard disks of the computers, compact discs and other storage media and also to prepare an inventory of the same.

Elaborating on the Delhi High Court order, Microsoft Corporation India law and corporate affairs attorney Anu Prakash said, “In India, computer software is protected under Section 2(o) of the Copyright Act, 1957 (the Act) as a “literary work”. Infringement of Copyright is a civil offence, which provides for remedies such as injunction, damages, rendition of accounts of profits and delivery up. It is also a criminal (cognizable and non-bailable) offence, punishable with an imprisonment term of up to three years and fine of up to Rs two lakh.”