Insights
IP and licensing
Notes on Indian law filed under IP and licensing. The practice itself is described on its own page.
An assignment of copyright passes only the rights, term and territory it names, and it leaves the author's royalty share and moral rights behind
An assignment of copyright under sections 18 and 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957 passes only what the written instrument identifies: the work, the rights, the term and the territory.
Reselling foreign software in India: payments for resale are not royalty, but goods and services tax and exclusivity terms still bind
In Engineering Analysis Centre of Excellence Private Limited v. Commissioner of Income Tax, decided on 2 March 2021, the Supreme Court held that a payment by an Indian distributor or end user to a foreign supplier for the resale or use of software under a distribution agreement or an end-user licence agreement is not royalty and gives rise to no income taxable in India, so no duty to deduct tax arose under section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme: what the incentive rates, thresholds and recovery terms say
The Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on 8 April 2025 with an outlay of INR 22,919 crore including administrative expenses, pays turnover-linked incentive at 1 to 10 per cent of incremental sales, capex incentive at 25 per cent of eligible capital expenditure, or both together for the two selected bare components in segment C.
Semicon 2.0: the gates are revenue, ownership and technology you already hold, not the capital you propose to spend
Semicon 2.0, notified on 31 August 2026, cut fiscal support for a silicon wafer fab to 40 per cent of eligible capital expenditure from the up to 50 per cent the first programme carried.
India's export control list now names chip manufacturing tools, and shipping or re-exporting them needs a licence
India's export control list for dual use items, the Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) list, was revised by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on 23 September 2025, to take effect 30 days after issue.
AI and patents, trade secrets and training data in India
Where Indian law stands on patenting AI, naming an AI as inventor, protecting models as trade secrets, and using copyright works as training data.
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