Copyright Infringement of Videogames in India: A Legal Analysis

Abstract

“A large population finds enjoyment in playing video games, which have a variety of positive and negative consequences on mental health, the gaming sector was forecast to have grown by 17.3% from US $543 million in 2016 to reach US $1.027 billion in 2020 in the Indian online sector, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors both in India and globally’’1 India lacks a dedicated legislative framework to safeguard video games, which has generated questions as the sector continues to expand2 . However, as video games are considered “creative works” under India’s copyright laws, they may be protected.3Various gaming components or aspects could be regarded as copyrightable works. There have been studies on the topic of the protection of video games under Indian copyright law4 . This idea will look at the current state of copyright protection for video games in India, the legal issues surrounding intellectual property rights in the country’s gaming sector, and a comparison of Indian video game regulations with those in other countries. Video games, which are regarded as creative intellectual creations, are protected under copyright laws. However, as a relatively new field of IP law, the copyrightability of software has certain problems with the copyright protection of video games through copyright, patents, and trademarks5 .