Sharing of research information and database whether royalty?

Facts:

Assessee the world's largest scientific society based out of USA disseminated/shared research information in the form of booklets, databases, research papers thru its two divisions Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) division and Publications (PUBS) division. Revenue's case was the assessee's income by way of subscriptions and fees for these information services were royalty under Section 9(1)(vi) read with Indo US DTAA Article 12(3) as these provided right to technical information or usage of copyrighted information that will qualify as royalty under the Act/DTAA. DRP upheld views of AO. On further appeal --

Held in favour of the assessee that the sharing of the information/databases/publications was not royalty and hence not taxable under the act.

Applied:

Assessee's own case for earlier years.

In re, Dub & Bradstreet Espana Section A. (2005) 272 ITR 99 (AAR) : 2005 TaxPub(DT) 0805 (AAR)

Ed. Note: Revenue at some point has to stop contesting accepted cases on facts to at least avoid protracted litigation.

Case: American Chemical Society v. Dy. CIT 2023 TaxPub(DT) 2277 (Mum-Trib)