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(a) (b) of the Copyright Act, copyright is deemed to be infringed when any person, without license, exercises rights exclusively vested in the copyright owner or sells infringing copies of the work. Under the Copyright Act, computer programs are treated as a special class of work, and even unauthorized use of pirated software amounts to infringement, as use necessarily involves reproduction at the time of installation or execution. The Plaintiff licenses its software products to customers under a standard End-User License Agreement/Software License Agreement displayed on its website. As per the Plaintiff, the license granted is domain-specific and limited in nature, permitting use of the software only on a single domain for the licensee's own business or personal use. The license expressly prohibits copying, modification, resale, sublicensing, distribution, publication of source code, creation of derivative works, or making the software available on public platforms, including code repositories, without the Plaintiff's written consent. As per the License Agreement, the software can be used only on one specific domain, cannot be placed on public servers, and backup copies cannot be shared or made accessible to any unauthorized person.

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10. The Defendant has been a former employee of the Plaintiff, from 04.06.2018 to 10.09.2019 has been carrying on the infringing activities by copying code structure or user interface of the plaintiff's module and illegally selling them from its website, www.atsinfosystem.com. As per the Plaintiff, during and after his employment, the Defendant developed and operated a website and online accounts through which he started selling software modules. The Plaintiff alleges that several modules sold by the Defendant are either verbatim copies or substantially similar to the Plaintiff's original software in terms of source code, structure and user interface. According to the Plaintiff, upon conducting an internal audit and online investigation, it was discovered that the Defendant was selling infringing software modules on his own website and on third- party platforms, including Prestashop. The Plaintiff asserts that even where minor modifications were made, the Defendant's products remain derivative works of the Plaintiff's copyrighted software, created without any license or consent.

Case of the Defendant

12. The defendant has contested the present suit by filing a Written Statement. The defendant submits that the present suit is liable to be dismissed as this Court does not have territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction to entertain the suit and the plaint is not maintainable in its present form. The suit has not been properly instituted, as it has not been signed, verified, or filed by a duly authorised and competent person on behalf of the plaintiff company. The defendant denies that Mr. Vipin Kumar Sahu is a Director of the plaintiff company or that he was duly authorised by a valid board resolution to institute the present suit. The alleged board resolution dated 21.01.2019 is stated to be with respect to some other case and is misused by the plaintiff. The defendant denies the plaintiff's claims regarding its scale of business, development of software, web extensions, mobile applications, and ownership of copyrights. It is stated that the plaintiff used open-source platforms and copied code from the internet with the help of its employees. It is submitted that the plaintiff company used to ask its employees to copy the code ro softwares from internet. The defendant states that he was employed with the plaintiff only from 04.06.2018 to 10.09.2019 and had resigned due to non-payment of salary and pressure from the plaintiff company. The defendant denies ownership or control of the domain "atsinfosystem.com" after the year 2017. It is stated that the said domain was purchased by the defendant in 2013 for resale purposes and was sold to a third party in 2017. The defendant is not responsible for any activities carried out on the said domain thereafter. The defendant denies all allegations of copyright infringement, copying of source code, user interface, modules, software, or misuse of confidential information. It is submitted that similarities, if any, arise due to use of common open-source platforms and publicly available development guidelines. The defendant further denies allegations of selling plaintiff's products, earning unlawful profits, stealing data, violating licence agreements, or indulging in unfair trade practices. The defendant asserts that he has no control over the website or related accounts after 2017. The defendant denies receipt of the alleged legal notice dated 01.11.2019 and submits that no cause of action has arisen against him, as he had no involvement with the alleged infringing activities. The defendant denies the plaintiff's claims of loss, damage, goodwill erosion, or entitlement to damages, rendition of accounts, or injunctive relief. The defendant denies that any criminal offence under the Indian Penal Code, Copyright Act, 1957, or violation of advertising standards has been committed by him. The defendant submits that the suit is based on false, vague, and unsubstantiated allegations, lacks cause of action, and has been filed to harass the defendant. In view of the above facts and circumstances, the defendant prays that the plaint be dismissed with costs.

rely upon the following documents:-
1. Ex.DW-1/1- Copy of mail dated 05.11.2019 and 05.12.2019 in Page 7 of list of documents.
2. Ex.DW-1/2-Copy of chat with Godaddy customer support.
3. Ex.DW-1/3- Copy of domain IQ disclaimer.
4. Ex.DW-1/4- Copy of screenshots of atsinfosystem.com at page 8 to 9 of document filed alongwith written statement.
5. Ex.DW-1/5- Copy of domain information regarding atsinfosystem.com.

All 6. of Ex.DW-1/6- Documents showing similarity in coding modules/addons/software etc. of plaintiff and open source platform.