Resolving IPR Issues Relating to Geospatial Databases and GIS Products- A Pressing Priority for Geospatial Industry in India

Geospatial data means the geographical information derived through satellites, drones, airborne sensors, and ground sensors. This data is used in Geographical Information System (GIS) to provide value added products such as maps, elevation models, vector data, imagery combined with metadata, sketches, 3-D works etc. used in problem solving and decision making. There are concerns that geodata service providers do not enjoy requisite IPR protection. Data utilizers suffer from the want of easy access to data, data integrity, accuracy, and legitimacy. The originality or creativity rule makes it hard to secure copyright in GIS databases. It may lead to increased infringement of such works since Indian IPR regime does not provide protection for trade secrets or any other sui generis protection to such works. Computer related inventions are subject to the stringent rule of non-patentability under section 3 of the Indian Patent Act, 1970. For value added geodata products fully or partially developed upon pubic or open-source data, ‘public domain’ question restricts the IP protection. Moreover, there must be a balance between right to free flow of information and exclusive proprietary right to bits of information protected by intellectual property rights. In this context, this paper makes an analytical study of the scope of IPR protection in geospatial data and GIS products with reference to the relevant international case law and conventions, though more focusing on the Indian IPR law, policy, and recent trends in judicial decisions.