Procedure for Copyright registration
An application for registration of Copyright may be made at the Copyright Office at New Delhi in the statutory form and on payment of statutory fees. The following details are required to be furnished by the applicant to enable us to prepare the said Copyright application :
- Duly filled Copyright application form provided by us.
- Clear specimen of the work (4 copies of the Work – published or unpublished). For works in machine-readable form, the object code will be required.
- ‘Identifying portions’ rather than complete works may be deposited. In the case of computer programs, it is helpful to deposit the first and last few pages (say first 25 pages and the last 25 pages) of source code plus the page containing the Copyright notice, if included.
- A Power of Attorney in the specified form.
Submission of the above will enable obtaining a diary number. The final copyright certificate will be obtained in 15-18 months.
Use of the "©" symbol
The Copyright owner may display the notice of Copyright on publicly distributed copies to alert the public of the claim. The display consists of symbol c (letter c in a circle) or the word Copyright, the year of first publication, and the copyright owner’s name.
Eg: © 2009 iPOTT
Copyright Assignments
The owner of the copyright in an existing work or the prospective owner of the copyright in a future work may assign to any person the copyright either wholly or partially and either generally or subject to limitations and either for the whole term of the copyright or any part thereof.
The assignment should be in writing signed by the assignor or by his duly authorized agent. It should identify the specific works and specify the rights assigned and the duration and territorial extent of such assignment. It shall also specify the amount of royalty payable, if any, to the author or his legal heirs during the currency of the assignment and the assignment shall be subject to revision, extension or termination on terms mutually agreed upon by the parties. If the period of assignment is not stated, it shall be deemed to be 5 years from the date of assignment.
Other Useful Information on Copyrights
Both published and unpublished works can be registered.
Copyright in works published before 21st January, 1958, i.e., before the Copyright Act, 1957 came in force, can also be registered, provided the works still enjoys copyright.
Three copies of published work may be sent along with the application. If the work to be registered is unpublished, a copy of the manuscript has to be sent along with the application for affixing the stamp of the Copyright Office in proof of the work having been registered. In case two copies of the manuscript are sent, one copy of the same duly stamped will be returned while the other will be retained in the Copyright Office for record purpose and will be kept confidential.
An applicant may also send only extracts from the unpublished work instead of the whole manuscript and ask for the return of the extracts after being stamped with the seal of the Copyright Office.
When a work has been registered as unpublished and subsequently it is published, the applicant may apply for changes in particulars entered in the Register of Copyright.
The copyright law aims to benefit society by fostering the creation and dissemination of works of authorship. It achieves this goal by providing copyright owners with just enough protection so that they have a meaningful incentive to create and commercialize their works. The law's objective is not simply to reward copyright owners but to promote the free use and exchange the ideas expressed in copyrighted works.
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