Cyber law –Unit-5:

Different Types of Civil Wrongs under the IT Act, 2000.

A civil wrong or wrong is a cause of action under civil law. Types include tort, breach of contract and
breach of trust.

Something that amounts to a civil wrong is wrongful. A wrong involves the violation of a right because
wrong and right are contrasting terms.

An 1860 legal ruling stated that: "It is essential to an action in tort that the act complained of should
under the circumstances be legally wrongful as regards the party complaining; that is, it must
prejudicially affect him in some legal right".

The law that relates to civil wrongs is part of the branch of the law that is called the civil law.

A civil wrong can be followed by civil proceedings.

It is a misnomer to describe a civil wrong as a "civil offence".

The law of England recognised the concept of a wrong before it recognised the distinction between civil
wrongs and crimes in the 13th century.

CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER OFFENCES

The increased rate of technology in computers has led to the enactment of Information Technology Act
2000.

The converting of the paperwork into electronic records, the storage of the electronic data, has
tremendously changed the scenario of the country.

Offenses: Cyber offenses are the unlawful acts which are carried in a very sophisticated manner in which
either the computer is the tool or target or both.

Cybercrime usually includes:

(a) Unauthorized access of the computers

(b) Data diddling

(c) Virus/worms attack

(d) Theft of computer system

(e) Hacking
(f) Denial of attacks

(g) Logic bombs

(h) Trojan attacks

(i) Internet time theft

(j) Web jacking

(k) Email bombing

(l) Salami attacks

(m) Physically damaging computer system.

The offenses included in the IT Act 2000 are as follows:

Tampering with the computer source documents.

Hacking with computer system.

Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form.

Power of Controller to give directions

Directions of Controller to a subscriber to extend facilities to decrypt information

Protected system

Penalty for misrepresentation

Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy

Penalty for publishing Digital Signature Certificate false in certain particulars

Publication for fraudulent purpose

Act to apply for offense or contravention committed outside India

Confiscation

Penalties or confiscation not to interfere with other punishments.

Power to investigate offenses.

Intellectual Property (IP) simply refers to the creation of the mind.

It refers to the possession of thought or design by the one who came up with it.

It offers the owner of any inventive design or any form of distinct work some exclusive rights, that make
it unlawful to copy or reuse that work without the owner’s permission.

It is a part of property law. People associated with literature, music, invention, etc. can use it in business
practices.

There are numerous types of tools of protection that come under the term “intellectual property”.
Notable among these are the following:

Patent

Trademark

Geographical indications

Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits

Trade secrets

Copyrights

Industrial Designs

Cyberspace is the non-physical domain where numerous computers are connected through computer
networks to establish communication between them.

With the expansion of technology, cyberspace has come within reach of every individual.

This fact led to the emergence of cyberspace as a business platform and hence increases pressure on
Intellectual Property.

Nowadays, cyber crimes do not solely limit themselves to fraud, cyber bullying, identity thefts but also
an infringement of copyrights and trademarks of various businesses and other organizations.

Online content needs to be protected and hence Intellectual Property Rights and Cyber laws cannot be
separated.

In cyberspace, sometimes one person makes a profit by using another person’s creation without the
owner’s consent. This is a violation of privacy, and it is protected by IPR.
We have certain laws to avoid violation of Intellectual Property Rights in cyberspace and when it is
violated, and then additionally we have several remedies in law.

Copyright Infringement:

Copyright protection is given to the owner of any published artistic, literary, or scientific work over his
work to prohibit everyone else from exploiting that work in his name and thereby gain profit from it.

When these proprietary creations are utilized by anyone without the permission of the owner, it leads
to copyright infringement.

If copies of any software are made and sold on the internet without the permission of the owner or
even copying the content from any online source, these all are examples of copyright infringement.

Copyright Issues in Cyberspace :

1. Linking –

It permits a Website user to visit another location on the Internet.

By simply clicking on a word or image on one Web page, the user can view another Web page
elsewhere in the world, or simply elsewhere on the same server as the original page.

Linking damages the rights or interests of the owner of the Linked webpage.

It may create the supposition that the two linked sites are the same and promote the same idea. In this
way, the linked sites can lose their income as it is often equal to the number of persons who visit their
page.

2. Software Piracy –

Software piracy refers to the act of stealing software that is lawfully shielded.

This stealing comprises various actions like copying, spreading, altering, or trading the software.

It also comes under the Indian copyright act.

An example of software piracy is downloading a replica of Microsoft Word from any website other than
Microsoft to avoid paying for it as it is a paid software.

Piracy can be of 3 types:

Soft lifting

Software Counterfeiting

Uploading-Downloading.
3. Cyber squatting –

Cyber squatting means unauthorized registration and use of Internet domain names that are similar to
any business’s trademarks, service marks, or company names.

For example, let us consider Xyz is a very famous company and the company hadn’t created a website
yet.

A cyber squatter could buy xyz.com, looking to sell the domain to the company Xyz at a later date for a
profit.

The domain name of a famous company can even be used to attract traffic and this traffic will help
cyber squatters earn a lot of money through advertising.

When more than one individual believes that they have the right to register a specific domain name,
then this can lead to a Domain Name Dispute.

It arises when a registered trademark is registered by another individual or organization who is not the
owner of a trademark that is registered.

Trademark Issues in Cyberspace:

Trademark means a mark capable of being depicted diagrammatically and which may distinguish the
products or services of one person from those of others and will embody the form of products, their
packaging, and combination of colors.

A registered service mark represents a service.

Trademark infringement refers to the unlawful use of a trademark or service mark which can cause
ambiguity, fraud, or confusion about the actual company a product or service came from.

Trademark owners can take the help of the law if they believe their marks are being infringed.

Interface with Copyright Law

Copyright law is a type of intellectual property law that protects creative works, which can include things
like plays, movies, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, songs, letters, and many other things.

In the United States, the Constitution provides that copyright law protects “original works of
authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.

Most other countries that are members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have
similar definitions.
Copyright law does not protect ideas, procedures, methods of operations, or mathematical concepts
(though other types of IP may protect them under certain circumstances).

In other words, copyright law is about protecting a particular expression of an idea, not functional
elements of a given work.

Copyright law can apply to all kinds of technological works that are used with computers, tablets, smart-
phones, or video game systems.

This includes apps, computer programs, databases, spreadsheets, screen displays, and even virtual
reality environments.

Copyright also applies to works that are used or distributed on the internet like websites, blogs, and
other online content.

Interface with Patent Law

Definition of Patent Law

Patent law is the branch of intellectual property law that deals with new inventions. Traditional patents
protect tangible scientific inventions, such as circuit boards, car engines, heating coils, or zippers.
However, over time patents have been used to protect a broader variety of inventions, such as coding
algorithms, business practices, or genetically modified organisms.

In general, a patent can be granted if an invention is:

● not a natural object or process;

● new;

● useful; and

● not obvious.

Exactly what is eligible for patent protection is a topic of fierce debate, and courts often struggle to
determine what is a new, non obvious invention.

Once granted, a patent gives the inventors the exclusive right to sell their invention for 20 years.
Sometimes inventors give other companies a license to manufacture and sell the invention in exchange
for a fee.
Terms to Know

● Application: The collection of documents that must be filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) in order to obtain a patent.

● Agent: Someone who is not an attorney, but who is authorized to file patent applications on behalf of
inventors.

● Claims: The section of the patent application that defines the new and nonobvious part of the
invention and the part of the invention that can later be protected.

● Counterpart: A patent application before the USPTO concerning an invention that is already patented
in another country. Typically, the same person files both patent applications.

● Infringement: Making or selling a patented device without a license from the patent owner.

● Prior Art: The state of the industry before the patent was filed. Things that are considered prior art are
not eligible for patent protection because they are not new.

● Patent Prosecution: The process of applying for and receiving a patent.

● Patent Litigation: The process of defending a patent against infringement.

In many ways, patents are the best tool for protecting a user interface:

Legally, patents are better suited to protecting things that perform a function (remember that copyright
was originally intended to protect non-functional art, literature, etc.).

Individual patents can also be written in a way that they protect overall look and feel as well as
individual design elements.

The infringement threshold is lower.

Copyright infringement requires copying, while patent infringement can be proven if a design is
sufficiently similar but is not a copy.

Patents do not have a fair use provision.

Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without asking for permission; for example, I've
directly quoted some sources in this article, and that's permissible under fair use, but I do not have the
right to reuse patented material in a similar way.

Consequently, software developers have accumulated thousands of patents and most court cases over
user interface intellectual property are patent infringement cases.

Apple vs. Samsung is the best known example.

User interfaces can be protected by design or utility patents:

Design patents are "issued for a new, original, and ornamental design embodied in or applied to an
article of manufacture.

" Design patents are issued for designs that are novel, non-obvious, and non-functional.

Utility patents are "issued for the invention of a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or
composition of matter, or a new and useful improvement thereof.

“ Utility patents are evaluated based on the "operability of the invention, a beneficial use of the
invention, and practical use of the invention."

If you are considering a UI patent, an intellectual property attorney can be very helpful, not only in
deciding what can be patented but also in how the patent should be structured and written so that it
provides the desired protection.

The attorney may bring in a UI expert for additional support.

Trade marks &Domain Names Related issues

After successful trademark registration, there can be nothing worse for a businessman than finding out
that the corresponding domain name isn’t available.

Such trademark issues related to domain names are fairly common and can be resolved based on the
context. Let’s understand trademark and domain name issues in detail.

Once the trademark registration is complete, hosting a website is the next step, for which a domain
name is to be registered.
The regulating body responsible for maintaining IP address records is called the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

A domain name can be divided into Top Level Domain (TLD) and Second Level Domain (SLD).

TLD is further divided into generic (gTLD) or geographic (CcTLD), wherein generic domain names are
international in nature (Ex - .edu, .com) and geographic domain names are for particular nations (Ex
- .in).

Thus, the first step in domain registration is deciding the TLD and SLD. Once that has been settled, the
registrar will collect the necessary information and send it to the registry that maintains the directory.

Disputes

1. Cyber squatting

Suppose a highly prestigious company, say Tanishq, does not have a website yet. Someone buys the
domain name ‘tanishq.com’ either intending to sell it later to Tanishq at a profit or to attract traffic and
generate money through advertising.

You just got yourself a case of cyber squatting: the act of registering and using a domain name in bad
faith, a common trademark and domain name dispute.

2. Cyber Twins

Cyber twins or concurrent disputes arise when both parties have a legitimate claim to a domain name.

This is the most complicated of all trademark issues related to a domain name.

For example, the case of Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperation Ltd vs. International Foodstuffs Co. for
the domain name iffco.com.

3. Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

As the name suggests, RDNH is the inverse of Domain Hijacking, when a trademark holder falsely
accuses a legitimate domain name holder with cyber squatting and wrongly pressurizes him to give it up
to another party.

For instance, the infamous case of Indian Hotels Company Ltd. and the domain name IndianHotels.com.

Settlement

There are several ways in which trademark issues related to domain names can be settled

Non - Intervention

If the domain name is not vital, contesting for it will only cost time and money. Therefore, it is not worth
fighting over.
Mutual Agreement

Another way of dealing with such issues is to arrive at a pact of understanding between the two parties.

This could either take place in the form of a disclaimer on the domain owner’s website stating that it is
not related to the trademark holder’s business or a link displayed which redirects traffic that has
erroneously arrived at their site, back to the trademark bearer’s website.

Trademark Law

Under the Anti cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999, individuals with no intention of
creating a legitimate website are prohibited from registering a domain name that already has a
trademark holder.

Disputes can even be registered under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) founded by
ICANN. The UDRP process takes relatively less time, as the verdict is given within 30-60 days of lodging a
complaint.

Breach of ISP’S Terms and Conditions

In case a website is run illegally or immorally, it is in violation of the Internet Service Provider’s Terms
and Conditions. As a result, the ISP can have the site suspended. The domain name owner may be more
than willing to transfer ownership to the trademark holder in exchange for a reasonable sum.