Treaty between India and United States – Indian decision on the sale of copyrighted software is not in the nature of royalties

The Indian Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) delivered a ruling dated 28 November 2011 in the case of Novell Inc. v. DDIT (International Tax) (ITA No. 4368/Mum/2010) wherein it held that the proceeds from direct sale of software to distributor without granting the right to duplicate/modify the software cannot be considered to be "royalty".

(a) Facts. Novell Inc. (i.e. the Taxpayer) was a provider of information solutions and a tax resident of the United States. The Taxpay…