Copyright is lawful protection obtained to secure a person’s original work from being utilized by a third person and benefiting from it by means of selling and obtaining money, gaining credit for it as his own invention or so. ‘Copyright’ was termed in Copyright Act, 1957. It is a category that falls under Intellectual Property i.e. intangible assets created by human intellect. The work is protected from being copied, reproduced, distributed or illegally displayed in public without consent of the author or copyright owner. By giving the right of authorship that helps boost financial strength to the owner by controlling access to work in market, encourages the scope of creativity. Creativity is a keystone in development of civilized society that is progressed with efforts and skills. This therefore deserves reward. The ownership rights pave way for dominance over the work which allows the owner to modify however, assign to another, register the rights etc. This article will majorly cover the procedure for copyright registration in India. There’ll also be brief of inclusions of work for copyright, it’s life span, amendment of act that focuses on significant changes and development of process of registration. 

KINDS OF ‘WORK’ THAT ARE PROVIDED COPYRIGHT TO.

Copyright Act[i] interprets as to what constitutes ‘work’ that are provided copyright. Work includes literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, a cinematograph film, or sound recording for which copyright is granted. It is also considered too restrictive protection and enactment of all copyright from other; this bothers the development of the society. Therefore, there are some exceptions and limitations to assign copyright i.e. ideas, education, religious ceremonies, combination of word, slogan, phrases, methods, names. Due to this restriction, the society will not be restricted from development in various fields like education, economy, culture etc. When a work is collaborated equally with more than one author, it is termed as ‘joint authorship’. Authorship is considered as those who are first owner or the original creator of the work. For example, for a photograph, the photographer is entitled to be the owner of copyright, for a sound recording, it’s the producer, a musical work etc. Copyrights differ according to class of work. Possession of copyright by the owner means he has exclusive rights to various activities like to reproduce a work, make copies to public, communicate the work to public etc.[ii]. 

REGISTRATION OF COPYRIGHT 

It is important to know that, once an original work is created, copyright is automatically obtained for it even before or without registering. It is not necessarily important for a creator to register unless he wishes to. Registration is not an essential to file action against infringement of copyright. Although, it’s required as proof[iii]. The cost of registration vary from Rs.500/- per work to Rs.5,000/- per work. Here, there might arise a question of court. There is no special court for copyright. For registering a copyright, the office should possess a register/ index called register of copyrights for the purpose of entering the particulars of registration that should include name or title of the author, name and address of the author(s), publisher and owner of copyright[iv]. This can be accessed by any person or for inspection purpose, can take a copy or extract on paying fee for it. The cost of this is Rs.500/- per work. The registrar and deputy registrar will be appointed by central government[v] to ensure safe and quality registration. 

STEP 1:

File an application

Firstly, any person, author or publisher interested to register copyrights can approach to the copyright office. The person is required to fill the prescribed Form XIV[vi] and requested to pay the fee along with it to the registrar. The person is also entitled to submit the required documents necessary. It is important to note that separate application should be made for different works. 

The required information/document for filing copyright application

1.     Applicant name, address, nationality 

2.     Author of work name, address, nationality 

3.     Nature of applicant’s interest in copyright i.e. Owner, Licensee etc.

4.     Title of the work

5.     Signature of authors declaration in case the applicant is different 

6.     Language of the work

7.     Status of the work (published or unpublished)

8.     If published, details of the publication as to date, country of publication, name, address, and nationality of publisher

9.     Details of further publications

10.  Details of person authorized to assign or license the rights in copyright

11.  Power of attorney for the firm

12.  Six hard copies of the work and three soft copies of the work

STEP 2:

Examination

The application is examined as to its fitness on the basis of whether all documents are submitted, or else further documents will be requested. Response, if any will have to be filed within the time span of 30 days. The registrar then enters the particulars. If the registrar decides to reject the work, the applicant or the author has the right to be heard by the registrar before rejecting.  

STEP 3:

Registration

The process of registration is considered to be completed once the entries are made, signed and issues by registrar of copyrights or deputy registrar of copyrights. Also, the registrar shall send a copy of the entries made to the concerned parties. The copyright registrar permits to keep registration in hard or soft copy. The register will possess particulars in Form XIII. I would like to bring a point to notice here regarding deputy registrar of copyrights who works on the orders of the registrar of copyright. The lifespan of the copyright would be during the whole of life of the author and additionally 60 years after his demise. 

Once a work is granted copyright, the third person need not acquire permission from the copyright owner for the purpose of research work, private study, criticism, review, reporting current news, performance by an amateur club or society if the performance is given to a non-paying audience and, the making of sound recording, literary, dramatic or musical works under certain condition. 

The registrar of copyright is entitled to and have the right to make correction of entries like error in name or address, any other error arose from accidental slip or omission. The cost of this may vary from Rs.200/- per work to Rs.2,000/- per work. The appellate board or any other person aggrieved has the right to order rectification of copyright registration in case of error or defect in register. Any entry made by correction and rectification can be published by registrar of copyright in official gazette or in any other fit manner. The modification in copyright particulars entered can be made in the form XV. 

For Checklist for the Applicant check the copyright office government of India page.[vii]

IMPACT OF COVID-19 CRISIS ON REGISTRATION AND APPLICATION 

Copyright application has fallen down drastically due to the pandemic. During the month of December 2019 there was 1954 applications whereas during the month of June 2020 application number fell down to 1580. The statistics of last year showed a consistent number of applications between 2000 to 1600 whereas the sudden dip in recent days due to pandemic leaves the creativities on hold.[viii] A public notice on May that allowed extension of timeline for various activities like proceeding, filing of reply or document, payment of fees etc.has recently through another public notice announced it’s commencement. There are also virtual hearing being conducted. This indicates the recovery from the pandemic although we saw a decline. Although June saw a dip in number of application/registration, it should be noted that it’s a recovery from months of March, April and notably May.