Copyright Registration – JRA Legal Solution

How Does Copyright Registration Work For You?

By law, copyright is the legal right entitled to creators of literary, dramatics, music, and artistic work and producers of films and recordings. Copyright registration in India grants its proprietor exclusive, sole rights to distribute, replicate, reproduce the work or give authorization to another entity for the same. It offers a bundle of rights – communication to the public, rights of reproduction, adaptation and translation of the work.

Why register a copyright in India? Benefits

When the work gets copyrighted, it is made available free on the public records, thereby creating the ownership.
In the case of copyright infringement, the authors can sue the infringers to secure their work and claim statutory damages
The owners can record the registration with Indian customs and prevent importing duplicate copies
Any by-product or derivative can be made from the original registered work
The rights can be passed or sold to third-party with no objection
Copyright protection enables the owners to exhibit their work

The process for registering copyright involves the following steps:

Step 1: The copyright registration application has to be filed in the concerned forms with the Copyright Registrar, mentioning the particulars of the work.

Depending on the type of work, separate copyright applications may have to be filed.

Our representatives will ask for basic details based on your copyright work. You will also need to send us three copies of your work and few signed documents including an authorisation letter that we will send by email. If the work is unpublished, two copies of the manuscript can be sent, where one copy will be returned to the applicant with seal and the other will be retained confidential with the Copyright Office. Applicants can also choose to send only the extracts of the manuscript instead of the whole unpublished copy.

Step 2: The forms must be duly signed by the applicant and the application must be submitted by the Advocate under whose name Power of Attorney has been executed.

Our experts will then prepare the copyright registration application and submit the necessary forms with the Registrar of Copyrights electronically.

Step 3: Once the application is submitted online, you will be issued the Diary number.

Step 4: There is a waiting period of 30 days within which the Copyright Examiner reviews the application for potential discrepancies and/or objections.

Step 5: If discrepancy and/or objections are found, discrepancy notice will be issued and the same needs to have complied within 30 days from the date of issuance of the notice.

Step 6: Once the discrepancy has been removed or if there are no discrepancies or objections with the application, the copyright shall be registered and the Copyright Office shall issue the Extracts of Register of Copyrights (ROC) which is nothing but the Registration Certificate.

On completion of the copyright application, you will receive a diary number. Registration will take 12 months from this day. During this time, we may be asked for some clarifications on the same and/or some defects in the application and it will cost a further Rs. 1500 for responding and complying with the defects..

Documents Required for Copyright Registration

Personal Details

Name, Address & Nationality of the Applicant
Name, address and nationality of the author of the work
Nature of the applicant’s interest in the copyright – whether the applicant is the author of the work or the representative of the author
Copies of the original work
ID proof of the owner and Incorporation certificate if it is for business

Nature Of The Work

Class & Description of the Work
Title of the Work
Language of the Work
Date of Publication – Publication in internal magazines, like a company magazine or a research paper submitted to a professor does not count as publication.

Scope of copyright protection

The Copyright Act, 1957 prevents unauthorized use of any original literary, musical, dramatic, sound recordings, cinematograph and other artistic works. Both published and unpublished works can be copyrighted, and the copyright of the original work is reserved for the original creator. Copyright can also be registered for works that were published before 21st January 1958, that is before the Copyright Act came into existence.

Copyright protection of original literary, musical, dramatic, and artistic works lasts for the entire lifetime of the author. In addition, it also for another 60 years counted from the year following the death of the author. In the case of sound recordings, cinematograph films, photographs, posthumous publications (published post the death of the author), anonymous and pseudonymous publications, government works and works of international organisations.

Rights of the copyright owner

Under the Indian Copyright Act 1957, copyright protects the social, economic and legal interests of the author. The copyright owner is entitled to the following exclusive rights.

Right Of Reproduction

The Copyright Act states that no third party can reproduce or make copies of the original work or part of the work unless the copyright owner has granted permission to do so. It restricts reproduction in the form of printing an edition of a work and recording sound and films.

Right Of Adaptation

The copyright creator can choose to use his work whichever way he wants. That is, he can create derivatives from the existing work or prepare a new work in the same form or different form based on the original work. The following actions define the term “adaptation” as per the Copyright Act:

Converting plays, movies, choreographic shows and other dramatic works into non-dramatic or literary works like poems, novels and books
Converting literary works and artistic works like sculpture, photography, paintings, drawings, etc into dramatic work
Modification or alteration of dramatic and non-dramatic work
Pictorial depiction of the work
Transcription of musical work

Right Of Communication To The Public

Copyright owners can make their work available to the public by means of broadcast or wireless diffusion whether in any or more of the forms of signs or visual images.

Right Of Public Performance

The owners of musical work and artistic work can perform their works publicly. For example, a musician can play his piece or an actor can perform in his play for the masses. The artists can also choose to broadcast their performance in the digital platforms.

Right Of Paternity And Integrity

The Copyright Law grants the moral rights of paternity and integrity to the creators. The right of paternity or attribution means that the creator can claim authorship over his work and have it attributed to him. That is, whoever wishes to reproduce or adapt the original work has to give due credit to the author or else the author has the right to file a suit against the maker. For example, if a person wants to make a movie out of a book, he/she must duly acknowledge the author. Right of integrity protects the right of the holder and lets him claim damages when someone distorts, mutilates or modifies his work causing disreputation to his name and work.

Right Of Distribution

The copyright holder may distribute his work in any form through reproducing, selling, renting, leasing or lending. He can also assign specific rights to a person to either copyright the work partially or wholly or subject to certain limitations.