Registration of `Work’ under the Copyright Act, 1957
The Copyright Act, 1957 (“the Act” ) provides for registration of original literary (including Computer Software), dramatic, musical and artistic work; cinematograph films; sound recordings and computer programme (“work”).
The Author or the assignee of the work may apply for registration of the work under the Act. In case, the Applicant is not the original author of the work, it/he would require deed of assignment for assignment of the work in its/his favour. In case, the work is to be registered in the name of the company (which can not be an author by itself, being an artificial person), the natural person who actually created the work, would need to assign the work in favour of the company.
[The `work’ which is used or is capable of being used in relation to any goods, a certificate is to be obtained from the office of the Trade Marks Registry (Section 45 of the Act). The Registrar of Trade Marks certify under such certificate that there is no identical/similar artistic work registered/pending for registration as a trade mark in relation to any class of goods. On receipt of the above mentioned certificate from the Trade Marks Registry, application may be filed with the Registrar of Copyrights along with such certificate]
Following documents are required for filing applications for registration of copyright:
- Authorization as per the Form provided by us;
- Application in the prescribed form to be signed by the Applicant;
- Ten copies of the work;
- In case, the work is an Artistic work, capable of being used in relation to goods for commercial use, requisite certificate from the Trade Marks Registry; An application for registration of the work as a trade mark also need to be filed with the Registrar of Trade Marks;
- A Deed of Assignment of the work in favour of the applicant in case the applicant is not the original author or in case of a company;
- On receipt of required certificate from the Trade Marks Registry, an application for registration of the work under the Copyright Act may be filed.
The registration of copyright in the work normally takes about 10-12 months.
The quotations of fees for the above matters is provided on requisition.