In R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, AIR 1978 SC 1613, the Supreme Court laid…

Question

In R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, AIR 1978 SC 1613, the Supreme Court laid down the test for copyright infringement of a play / film:

Accepted Answer

D. mere SIMILARITY of theme does NOT amount to infringement — the test is whether the lay observer would, after reading both works, get an unmistakable impression that the subsequent work is a copy of the original

1. In R.G. Anand v. Delux Films (1978), the Supreme Court considered whether the film 'New Delhi' infringed the play 'Hum Hindustani'.
2. The Court laid down: 'There can be no copyright in an idea, subject-matter, themes, plots or historical or legendary facts and violation of the copyright in such cases is confined to the form, manner and arrangement and expression of the idea by the author of the copyrighted work.'
3. The leading test: 'one of the surest and the safest tests to determine whether or not there has been a violation of copyright is to see if the reader, spectator or the viewer after having read or seen both the works is clearly of the opinion and gets an unmistakable impression that the subsequent work appears to be a copy of the original'.
4. The Court found NO infringement because the treatment, theme, and characters were substantially different.
5. Hence option A is correct.
_Source: Patents Act 1970 / Copyright Act 1957 / Trade Marks Act 1999 (Bare Acts, IPIndia portal + Copyright Office) — R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, AIR 1978 SC 1613_

Answer

only literal verbatim copying of dialogues line-by-line can amount to copyright infringement under the Act (cf. R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, AIR 1978 SC 1613)

Answer

any commercial use of a copyrighted work by another constitutes infringement, regardless of the substance of the alleged copying (cf. R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, AIR 1978 SC 1613)

Answer

infringement is conclusively proved if the works share at least one character of similar name and personality (cf. R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, AIR 1978 SC 1613)