India: Copyright

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the production, reproduction and dissemination of creative works, as well as posing intricate challenges for copyright law. A major type of synthetic media, deepfakes also pose further issues regarding copyright violations, personality rights, privacy concerns, and intermediary liability.

When a generative tool can produce a product's shape, packaging, or interface in seconds, the older assumptions behind design law start to strain. This piece asks who counts as the author or applicant when a human prompt and a machine's output are combined, what that combination does to novelty searches and disclosure risk, how ownership is actually allocated in AI platform contracts, and why a design registration is refused, or granted, in ways that copyright and patent protection are not.

When an artificial intelligence system is trained on copyrighted news content, and later answers a user’s question using what it learned, has the law been broken? On 24th July 2026, the Delhi High Court answered that question, at least for now. In ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. Open AI OpCo LLC, Justice Amit Bansal declined to grant an interim injunction against OpenAI, holding, on a prima facie, interim stage view, that the company’s use of ANI’s news content to train its large language models (“LLMs”) falls within the fair dealing exception under Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957

The Delhi High Court has declined interim relief in a copyright infringement suit brought by a news agency against an AI developer, finding that the use of publicly available content for training AI models may constitute fair dealing under Indian copyright law. The Court examined whether AI-generated outputs substantially reproduced copyrighted works and whether such use serves broader public interests in innovation and access to information.

The global IP ecosystem is experiencing record-high filings and AI-driven innovation, with pivotal rulings addressing copyright protection for AI training, trademark enforcement across digital platforms, and patent disputes involving standard-essential technologies. From India's first substantive finding on AI training and fair use to landmark settlements in U.S. copyright litigation, courts worldwide are shaping how intellectual property law adapts to emerging technologies and evolving regulatory prioritie

The commercial exploitation of fictional characters is hardly new. Recognisable characters from film and television sell everything from toys and apparel to cars and financial services. But when does borrowing a character for an advertisement cross the line from creative reference into infringement?

India's handloom industry faces a critical challenge as traditional artisans struggle to protect their centuries-old craft from commercial exploitation despite robust legal frameworks. While the country has established comprehensive Geographical Indication laws and intellectual property protections for heritage textiles like Banarasi, Pochampally, and Kanchipuram sarees, a significant gap exists between legislative intent and practical enforcement. Can legal mechanisms truly safeguard the livelihoods of mil

The Delhi High Court's landmark interim order in ANI v. OpenAI examines whether AI training on copyrighted news content constitutes infringement under Indian law, addressing jurisdictional challenges, fair dealing defenses...

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