Tarot cards were firstly used by the European people as playing cards and later on they people began to use tarot cards for prophecy. People started using tarot cards for doing occult reading they also started to create their own tarot decks for being distinctive.

          When they create their own deck for the tarot reading they create their own images on each card. Every image is distinctively different from other deck of tarot. There enters the concept of IPR in the tarot reading. When people created their own set of decks they used their own skills to create it, therefore it becomes their intellectual skills. When there is a matter of intellectual skills it can be protected under the law. It has a specific area in the field of law for intellectual skills and those skills are known as the intellectual property of a person. There are provisions regarding the above mentioned issues which are given under The Copyrights Act, 1957 of India.

         Copyright is a concept where the rights of the creators of the intellectual property are protected; therefore the work cannot be copied, plagiarized or have been knocked over. There are always laws about what you can or cannot publish on your own or any other platform, especially when it comes to other people’s work. There are many issues regarding tarot card. It is not only limited to the creation of decks; it also includes, drawn readings, books, teaching material etc. all of these aspects also need protection. These works are someone’s intellectual property. When any work includes intellectual property it is categorized under the types which are provided under the law. In this case tarot comes under copyright because it satisfies the given categories.

Conclusion

            If any work includes any artistic or literary work which is the intellectual property of the owner or the creator of the work, then his work should be protected with the help of law. When it comes to the matter of protection of such intellectual property, there are provisions made by the law. It is protected to maintain the serenity and the purity of the work. In this case tarot cards or anything related to the tarot card readings is protection under the Copyright Act, 1957 of India.

BY

SHRUTI TOPKAR

BA-LLB – 5th Year

Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s Shankar Rao Chavan Law College