ISP liability for Third-Party Offences Online

Internet Service Providers need to tread carefully to avoid acting as intermediaries for others that may be breaking the law, Nishchal Anand explains.

As the centre for innovation in technology has moved eastwards, so have illegal counterfeiting activities over the Internet. Though the problem is still nascent in India, trademark and copyright owners are generally ignorant of the scale of infringement over the Internet. As counterfeiters get smarter and rights holders get wiser, it will not be long before ISPs start to find themselves caught in the middle of disputes between the actual infringers and aggrieved parties.

This article was published in WIPR’s Trademark and the Internet 2010.

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