New Delhi, A few years after electronic book readers made inroads into the publishing industry, a new innovation now allows readers to buy or rent books online without falling prey to pirated contents.

Launched at the recently concluded World Book Fair in the capital,"thisbookreader" allows readers to rent a book for a specific time and price set by publishers.

The innovation is pending patent approval in the US and Japan. Only three Indian publishers have evinced interest in it so far.

"We have recieved interest from three publishers and talks are on to rope in more publishers to use the technology," says Vidyut Shah, co founder, Parth Online Bookstore, which has introduced the technology.

The technology, which also acts as an independant ebook reader can be purchased online or through physical book stores is based on an open source digital reading management and uses state-of-the-art encryption technology.