Copyright infringement in India is both a civil wrong and a criminal offence, and an owner can pursue either or both. The civil route gives injunctions and money; the criminal route gives police seizure and the prospect of imprisonment. This guide covers what counts as infringement, what the remedies are, and the two procedural features — the home-court rule and the groundless-threats provision — that shape how cases begin.
Quick reference
| Direct infringement | Doing anything the owner has the exclusive right to do, without licence |
| Secondary infringement | Selling, hiring, distributing, exhibiting or importing infringing copies; letting premises be used for an infringing performance for profit |
| The test | Copying of a substantial part — quality, not quantity |
| Civil remedies | Injunction, damages or an account of profits, delivery up; damages barred against an innocent infringer |
| Criminal | Six months to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh; cognizable; police can seize without warrant |
| Where to sue | Where the owner resides or carries on business, as well as where the infringement occurred |
What infringes
Direct infringement is doing, without the owner’s licence, anything the owner has the exclusive right to do: copying the work, issuing copies, performing or communicating it to the public, translating or adapting it, making a film or recording of it, or renting software, films or recordings. Posting a photograph on a website, playing music in a restaurant, translating a book, running unlicensed software on a computer — each is an act within the owner’s rights.
Secondary infringement is dealing in infringing copies: making them for sale or hire, selling or hiring them, distributing or exhibiting them in public by way of trade, or importing them into India. It also covers permitting a place to be used for a public performance that infringes, for profit, unless the person did not know and had no reason to believe it would infringe.
There is no infringement without copying. Independent creation of a similar work is not infringement, and the plaintiff has to show — usually by similarity plus access — that the defendant took from its work.
How much is too much
The defendant need not copy the whole work. Copying a substantial part is enough, and substantiality is judged by quality, not quantity: a short passage that is the heart of the work is substantial; pages of commonplace material may not be. The courts ask whether the defendant has taken what made the plaintiff’s work original, and, for works like films and plays, whether an ordinary viewer would get the unmistakable impression that one is a copy of the other. Ideas, themes, facts and stock elements are left out of the comparison.
Defences
The defences that succeed are: that the work is not protected, or the plaintiff does not own it; that the defendant did not copy; that what was taken was not substantial, or was idea rather than expression; that the use falls within one of the fair dealing and other exceptions the Act lists; and that the defendant had a licence, express or implied. The exceptions are the subject of a separate guide.
Civil remedies
The owner — or an exclusive licensee — can sue for:
- an injunction, interim and permanent, which in practice is the remedy that matters and is often obtained at the first hearing, without notice, where the copying is clear
- damages for the loss suffered, or an account of the defendant’s profits, at the plaintiff’s election; courts have been willing to award substantial and, for deliberate infringement, punitive damages
- delivery up of infringing copies and the plates used to make them, which the Act deems to be the owner’s property
- costs, which under the commercial courts regime follow the event
One limit: where the defendant proves it did not know and had no reasonable ground to believe that copyright subsisted in the work, the plaintiff gets only an injunction and such part of the defendant’s profits from the infringing copies as the court thinks reasonable — no damages. A copyright notice on the work, or a prior warning, removes that defence.
Criminal remedies
Knowingly infringing or abetting infringement of copyright is an offence punishable with imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine of ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh. For infringement that was not for gain in the course of trade, the court can impose less. A second conviction carries one to three years and ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh. Knowingly using an infringing copy of software on a computer is a separate offence, and circumventing technological protection with intent to infringe is another.
The offence is cognizable and non-bailable, as the Supreme Court confirmed in 2022, and a police officer of the rank of sub-inspector or above can seize infringing copies and plates without a warrant. That is what makes the criminal route useful against piracy and counterfeiting: a raid can happen within days, where a civil suit takes months to reach a hearing. The 2023 decriminalisation law that softened penalties across the intellectual property statutes left the copyright infringement offence untouched; it removed only the separate offence of making false statements to the Copyright Office.
Where to sue
A copyright owner can bring the suit in the court within whose jurisdiction it resides or carries on business, whether or not the defendant or the infringement is there. This is the home-court rule, shared with trademark law, and it lets a Chennai company sue a Delhi infringer in Chennai. The Supreme Court has trimmed it: where the owner has a place of business at the place where the infringement occurred, it must sue there rather than at its head office. Suits above the modest commercial-court threshold go to the commercial court or commercial division, and the Delhi, Madras and Calcutta High Courts have intellectual property divisions.
The limitation period is three years, but infringement that continues gives a fresh cause of action each day.
Groundless threats
A person threatened with copyright proceedings — by letter, circular or advertisement — can sue for a declaration that the threats are unjustified, an injunction and damages, if the acts complained of do not infringe. The threatener escapes only if it commences an infringement action with due diligence after the threat. A cease-and-desist letter is therefore a commitment: send it only where the case is sound and the owner is prepared to follow through.
Online and at the border
Infringing content online is dealt with by notice to the hosting platform, which must disable access for twenty-one days pending a court order, and by court orders against websites, including dynamic injunctions that extend to mirror sites as they appear. Infringing copies imported into India can be stopped at the border by recording the copyright with Customs. Both are covered in the enforcement guides.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as copyright infringement in India? Doing anything within the owner’s exclusive rights — copying, distributing, performing, communicating, adapting — without licence, or dealing in infringing copies by sale, hire, distribution, exhibition or import. Copying a substantial part is enough, judged by quality rather than quantity.
What remedies are available for copyright infringement? An injunction, damages or an account of profits, and delivery up of infringing copies. Where the defendant did not know and had no reason to believe copyright subsisted, only an injunction and a share of profits are available.
Is copyright infringement a criminal offence in India? Yes. Knowing infringement carries six months to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh. The offence is cognizable and non-bailable, and police can seize infringing copies without a warrant.
Where can I file a copyright infringement suit? Where the owner resides or carries on business, as well as where the defendant is or the infringement occurred — subject to the rule that an owner with a place of business at the place of infringement must sue there.
Can I send a cease-and-desist letter for copyright infringement? Yes, but a recipient who is not infringing can sue for groundless threats. The sender is protected only if it follows the letter with an infringement action pursued with due diligence.
How do I stop infringing content online? A written notice to the platform obliges it to disable access for twenty-one days pending a court order; beyond that, court orders against the website and, for piracy, dynamic injunctions covering mirror sites. Customs recordal stops infringing imports at the border.
Useful official resources
- Copyright Office, India — the Act and Rules
- Delhi High Court — Intellectual Property Division — rules and cause lists
See our related notes on fair dealing and the other exceptions, intellectual property litigation in India, online infringement enforcement and customs recordal.
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