Case Law Details
Dow Jones & Company Inc. Vs ACIT (ITAT Delhi)
In the case in hand, the revenue derived by the assessee from granting limited access to its data base is akin to sale of book, wherein purchaser does not acquire any right to exploit the underlying copyright. In the case of a book, the publisher of the book grants the purchaser certain rights to use the content of the book, which is copyrighted. The purchaser of the book does not acquire the right to exploit the underlying copyright. When the purchaser reads the book, he only enjoys the contents. Similarly, the user of the database does not receive the right to exploit the copyright in the database he only enjoys the product in the normal course of his business.
In the present case, the appellant is only granting access to its database to DJCIPL. In our considered opinion, the payments received cannot be said to be ‘Royalty’ in nature. The transaction under consideration is for provision of accessing database of the assessee. Hence the same cannot be considered as ‘Royalty’ under Article 12 of the India-US DTAA.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT DELHI
This appeal by the assessee is preferred against the order dated 12.09.2018 framed u/s 143(3)/144 r.w.s 144C(13) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 [hereinafter referred to as ‘The Act’].
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