The Delhi High Court has restrained Commercial Law Publishers and others from publishing and selling any publication containing headnotes prepared by the legal publishing house Taxmann [Taxmann Allied Services Pvt Ltd v. Commercial Law Publishers (India) Pvt Ltd & Ors].
Justice Vikas Mahajan passed an ex parte interim injunction on November 2, finding prima facie that the defendant copied Taxmann's original headnotes, including its distinctive manner of identifying, distilling and presenting legal propositions and the operative aspects of judgments.
“Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, the defendants, their directors, partners, proprietors, officers, servants, agents, distributors, retailers, and all others acting for and on their behalf, are restrained from printing, publishing, reproducing, distributing, selling, offering for sale, advertising, or in any manner, dealing with the eight (08) impugned publications as mentioned in paragraph 35 above, or any other publication containing the plaintiff’s headnotes or any substantial reproduction thereof, in any manner whatsoever,” the Court ordered.
Justice Mahajan was hearing a copyright infringement suit filed by Taxmann. It alleged that Commercial had reproduced substantial portions of its original headnotes in eight publications dealing with income tax and related subjects.
Taxmann told the Court that its headnotes were independently prepared by its in-house editorial and research team comprising over 200 professionals. It argued that preparing a headnote involved reading and understanding an entire judgment, identifying the legal issue decided, selecting relevant facts and originally presenting the legal proposition.
The company contended that this exercise involved considerable skill, judgment and editorial discretion, making the headnotes original literary works protected under the Copyright Act, 1957.
It alleged that the defendants had copied hundreds of its headnotes across eight publications, including Income Tax Act, 1961, Direct Tax Law and Practice, Search and Seizure and Taxation of Salaried Employees and Pensioners.
According to Taxmann, at least 280 headnotes were reproduced in Direct Tax Law and Practice, while 235 were copied in Income Tax Act, 1961. It also pointed out that several of the defendants' publications acknowledged 'TAXMANN.COM' as the source below the allegedly copied headnotes.
Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak with advocates Saurabh Kansal, Pallavi S Kansal, Raghav Vij, Suraj Kumar Jha and Pratham Malik represented Taxmann.
[Read Order]