Aamna Nabeeha Naqvi, Advocate Delhi High Court
ABSTRACT
The Copyright law in India can put a person in strange situations, for example, if Saif Ali Khan decides to makes changes in his arm tattoo which says “Kareena” in Hindi, then apart from his wife, will he face action from his tattoo artist too?
With the change in forms of expression that people have adopted over a period of time, the Law of Copyright also has to keep up and address the issues which crop up. Areas like tattoo making, food designing, joke writing, and so on, go unaddressed under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. There is also a total absence of judicial pronouncements addressing the conundrums which germinate from these areas.
So, with respect to tattoos, many interesting questions arise, like where do you place a tattoo in the six categories of ‘works’ prescribed under section 2(c)? If a celebrity has got a tattoo and he appear in public, does that amount to communication to the public of his work? Will it fall under Section 17 Proviso(b) or Section 17 Proviso(c)? Will temporary and permanent tattoos be treated differently under the Indian Law? This paper aims to address issues like these while acknowledging the vacuum which survives in the Indian Copyright arena.
First part of the paper introduces the topic and the basics of Indian Copyright law. Part two dwells into the connection of tattoos and Indian law of Copyright and part three deals specifically the area of personality rights and tattoos. Part four looks into the problems of the right holder and under part five the author has tried to come up with solution to the various issues and then concludes the paper.
