New Delhi, June 24 -- The Calcutta high court's recent decision in Indiamart Inter Mesh Ltd vs OpenAI Inc may appear at first glance to be a routine intellectual property dispute. An e-commerce platform alleged that ChatGPT's responses were bypassing its listings and sought relief on grounds of dilution, disparagement and unfair trade practices. The court declined interim relief.

But the real significance of the case lies elsewhere. In assessing how ChatGPT functions, the court engaged with a larger question: can India's intermediary liability framework, designed for a different era, meaningfully be applied to Generative AI? The answer, on the face of it, seems uncertain.

From passive platforms to generative systems: India's intermediar...