What is Copyright Registration?

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection like trademark and patent. A copyright is a legal right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings. Copyright give the owner of the work certain safeguard to ensure the intellectual work is protected and creativity is rewarded. Copyright includes a bundle of right like the rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work.

In India, Copyrights are registered under The Copyright Act, 1957. The Copyright Act, 1957 protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and cinematograph films and sound recordings from unauthorized uses. However, ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts cannot be copyrighted. Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings. In fact, it is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work. There could be slight variations in the composition of the rights depending on the work.

Almost necessary now that infringement and piracy is so rampant, a copyright registration gives you the right to take to court anyone using your work.

  • We will complete the application on your behalf
  • We attend to any clarification the authorities may need

6 Essential Facts on Copyright Registration

Copyright recognises the exclusive rights of the creator over an original work. Music, books, manuscripts, software, films, fashion designs, even brochures and training manuals all enjoy copyright protection, even without registration. Basically, the moment you create an original work, you are its exclusive owner. However, in the commercial world, the reason why artists, publishers and corporates still bother to register the copyright on their work is that it’s the only way to approach the courts in case of a dispute.

The copyright registrar primarily serves as an office of record, a place where claims to copyright are registered and documents related to copyright are recorded. The office furnishes information about the provisions of the copyright law and the procedures for making registration, to explain the operations and practices of the copyright office, and to report on facts found in its public records.

If you have a certain brand name, or a logo, or a slogan in mind, we can do a trademark search for you. A simple way to do this yourself, is to just go online to the internet and check if there is a similar company with a similar name to yours, on the internet. You should also check if the domain name of your brand is available or not.

Copyright protection arises automatically the moment the author fixes the work in a tangible form (for instance when a writer writes her story) without the author having to do anything. Registering your work with the registrar of the copyright office is basically a copyright protection insurance policy. It creates a public record of the work and you can then sue anyone for copyright infringement. Furthermore, this registration is only recognised prima facie if done within five years of the creation of the work. It isn’t as if you can just postpone registration until someone actually does steal your work.

Any person hearing it could by taking down the lecture or story in shorthand reduces it to material form. Similarly, music could be recorded on tape. Therefore, do the persons who first reduced the performance to a material form become the copyright owners of the lecture, story or dramatic performance or music? This is not so, as certain special rights (performer's rights) have been conferred upon any performer of his performance. The performer in this context includes an actor, singer, musician, dancer, acrobat, juggler, conjurer, a person delivering a lecture or any other person who delivers a performance.

In case you want to copyright a video, film or an audio recording track, it is recommended that you get an NoC from all the people involved in its making. This will protect you from any objections from them at a later date. This has become imperative now after the latest Supreme Court guidelines on sound recording and cinematography copyright registration.

Need Our Help?

Need Our Help?

Have a finance problem? Reach to us to get free advisor from our finance experts today.

Contact Now
Vellore,Tamil Nadu
Monday to Saturday
Call Us :(+91) 81899-85557
                 (+91) 81899-85559