How to Register a Copyright in India
A copyright is a baggage of legal rights available to artistic and creative people for restricting usage of their unique creation by others. As per Indian law, copyright registration guides for all actions and remedies available to creators for their artistic and unique content being composed in the form of literature, music, cinematography, sound clips, software’s etc to get them protected against their unreported recreation or duplicity.
Copyright is a part of intellectual rights, registration of which nowadays is among the basic formalities that every business unit has to follow. Apart from intellectual privacy legislation, Copyright registration in India has also been accommodated to Copyright (Amendment) Act 2013, which specifies its area of operations and penalties applicable to infringement of copyrights.
Keeping aside its protection utility, it never mandates any business or organization to apply for registration or disclose any business information to copyright authorities. However, it is always suggested that business owners should go for copyright registration in order to legally hold a petition against a person/competitor for infringement of his/her business rights or to claim a reasonable penalty for any such harm.
Registration of Copyright / Proceeding with New Copyright Registration
With the ease of doing business steps of government, application to every intellectual right is a few step forward process. Alike trademark registration, copyright registration also follows a quick procedure of filing all required information online and getting a newly accommodated copyright certificate – without any delay in movement of legal houses.
As per Section 45 of the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012, for an applicant to apply for copyright registration has to mandatory file a copyright application and submit it to the Copyright Approving department on their online web portal with the prescribed fee determined to leave the final decision on registrar and department for approval.
How to Apply for Copyright Registration?
- Signing in to Department Website: For beginning with a new application, the applicant has to first register on the official web portal of copyright department office and have to generate a login and password after submission of all information requested.
- Filling the Required Forms: Once registered, login to the system by putting in the username and password received. The next step follows by clicking on the main registration link showing ‘Click for online Copyright Registration”. Required information is to be sufficed in blank spaces of Form XIV, in the statement of particulars, further particulars about applicant objectives and applicability of copyright on its creation and details of business identity if required.
- Making the Required Payment: After successful submission of registration form, the requested payment is to be done online. An email correspondence is then issued to the applicant along with an acknowledgment number and Copyright Registration Report for future reference.
Also Read: Advantages of Copyright Registration
Things to Know
- For manual submission of copyright application with Form XIV, statement of Particulars (SoP) and statement of further Particulars (SoFP) self-attestation of an applicant is required.
- If the work submitted for copyright is an ‘Artistic work’ under Design Act, 2000 then proper details of it is to be given in the statement of particulars (SoP).
- It is also necessary to mention in SoP – name, address, nationalities of various person compromising for copyright in the work, if the applicant himself intents to hold rights of copyright on behalf of others then the due concern of partnering members is also to be mentioned.
- In case, a partnership firm refers itself to be an applicant, then proper mention of all partners and their shares in the copyright is to be given.
- Application to be submitted should receive certification from Registrar Of Trademark concerning provisions of Copyright Amendment Rule 2013 if work applied for copyright is an Artistic work or is capable of being used in a relation of any good.
- It is required to submit a Power of Attorney (POA) if an advocate is filling on behalf of an applicant.
- As copyright applied in name of a firm cannot be claimed to be its creation, hence details of the person who actually created it should be furnished accurately.
- If work applied for copyright is published by some other person other than the applicant, a No Objection Certificate is to be received from the person or actual publisher and should be disclosed with the application.
Copyrights provide an incentive to creators to store and secure their creation in their name. The worst outcome of not having a copyright deed is your creation becomes someone’s building block and he might use it in benefit of his business or for some other unveiling authority giving you no credit or royalty. Registration to copyright encourages new business ideas and creates a favorable & secure economic atmosphere.