Standard Corporation India Ltd. v. Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd- the copyright-design conundrum

(This post has been co-authored with Aparajitha) Earlier this month, the Madras High Court heard the matter of Standard Corporation India Ltd. v. Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd, an appeal on an order passed in 2012 in a civil suit that dealt with copyright and design law. The respondent (plaintiff in the original civil suit) had contended that the appellant was slavishly imitating the tractors manufactured by it, thereby infringing on their copyright in the artistic work in the drawing for its tractors. The appellant...