Sale of Software without granting right to duplicate, amounts to sale of copyrighted article and not the transfer of copyright and therefore not taxable as ‘Royalty’

Novel Inc. Vs. DDIT (Intl. taxation) – The proceeds from sale of Software to Distributors, without granting the right to duplicate / alter / modify the software, cannot be construed as ‘Royalty’, regardless of the fact that the taxpayer choose to describe its product as ‘intellectual value’ in its invoices. The Tribunal held that if the creator himself exploits his work by converting it into end products ready for use and transfers the right to use such end products to another but not further the right to copy the same, it would be a case of transfer of a copyrighted product. Fu...