Delhi High Court awards ₹20 lakh damages to Microsoft in 12-year-old copyright infringement case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday awarded ₹20 lakh damages to Microsoft company after noting that the copyright in its products, MS Office and MS Windows were infringed by a Mumbai-based firm [Microsoft Corporation vs Rupesh Waidande]..Single-judge Justice Navin Chawla noted from the evidence on record that the defendants, who didn't participate in the proceedings, had been using the plaintiff's software programmes without purchasing the genuine licences."The defendants have failed to show proof of genuine use of the plaintiffs’ software programmes for all the installations that were in use at their organizations. Therefore, from the evidence led, it is evident that the defendants have infringed upon the copyright of the plaintiffs in their software programmes. Thus, damages of ₹ 20 lakh are granted in favour of the plaintiffs and against the defendants," the Court ordered..Justice Chawla by the instant order put an end to a 12-year-old dispute between the plaintiffs and the defendants over the latter illegally using some of the software programmes of the former.The illegality came to light after the plaintiffs deputed an investigator to conduct enquiries about the defendants’ use of the plaintiff's software programmes. From the telephonic conversations between the investigator and the defendant, the plaintiffs learnt that the defendants had about 130 computer systems at their registered office located in Mumbai and most of the said installations had the plaintiffs’ software programmes installed in it."The licenses held by these systems did not match with their usage and indicated that the defendants were indulging in the unlicensed use of plaintiffs software programmes," the plaint claimed.Thereafter, the plaintiffs sent repeated requests to the defendants to conduct a Software Management Assessment (SAM) review program to comprehensively evaluate the extent of the piracy of the plaintiffs’ software by the defendants. However, despite repeated follow ups made by the plaintiffs, the defendants chose not to respond to the said requests, the Court noted..The Court had on May 24, 2010, passed an ad-interim ex-parte order of injunction in favour of the plaintiffs, restraining the defendants from infringing the plaintiffs’ software program. A local commissioner was also appointed by the Court to investigate the extent of alleged infringement.The commission submitted a report on June 4, 2010 indicating infringement on part of the defendants.The parties were then referred to mediation on May 27, 2011; but they failed to arrive at an amicable settlement..In its order, the Court noted from the statements of a witness, a constituted attorney of the plaintiff, that on a search within the plaintiffs database ‘Microsoft Sales’, it was found that the number of licenses held by the defendants was much lower than the actual usage.The defendants had not contested the same."Moreover, the local commissioner in his report has found infringement on part of the defendants. The report of the local commissioner has remained unchallenged by the defendants. The report also found blatant attempts on part of the defendants to destroy evidence of their infringement," the judge noted.Therefore, the Court passed a permanent injunction against the defendants. It also ordered that the material seized from the defendants' computers be handed over to the plaintiffs so that they can destroy the same..Advocate Bharat S Kumar appeared for the plaintiffs.Advocate Ajunee Singh represented the defendants..[Read Judgment]