Does Copyright Protection End With The Grant Of A Patent?

It is normal for the patentee to seek copyright protection of the literary work in the same subject matter. This means that copyright protection can subsist along with patents. However, in a dispute involving a patent and copyright, the Sessions Judge discharged the respondents, concluding that copyright protection ended with the grant of a patent. In Kishore Chhabra vs The State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors.CRR-408-2015, presented before the Madhya Pradesh High Court on July 8, 2025, the core dispute involved whether the respondents violated Chhabra's patent and copyright related to an oil chamber cleaning machine.

This criminal revision, under Section 397 read with Sections 401 and 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, was preferred to challenge the legality of the order dated March 18, 2015, in Criminal Revision No. 336 of 2014, by the III Additional Sessions Judge, Ujjain. In this matter, a charge framed under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 and