Types of Copyright

The copyright is a negative right which prohibits unlawful copying of an original work of literature, dramatics, the computer program including computer databases and tables, artistic work, musical work, cinematography and sound recording. Copyright ensures some minimal right in favour of the author of the original work to protect their creativity from copying or counterfeiting the same, thereby safeguarding and rewarding creativity.

No. The copyright comes into existence at the time of its creation in favour of the creator of the work. The registration of the work with the registrar of copyright serves as a prima facie proof about the ownership of the copyright, and the certificate of registration of copyright serves as admissible evidence in the court of law.

The copyright application is filed at the office of the Registrar of Copyrights, located at Plot no. 32, Boudhik Sampada Bhawan, Sector 14, Dwarka, New Delhi- 110075.

Following is the process to register a Copyright in India.

1. Application to be made in Form Number - Form-XIV
2. Statement of Particulars and Statement of Further Particulars are also filed as is prescribed in the 1st Schedule of the rules of copyright.
3. For each work, a separate application is required to be filed, and there is no provision for submitting joint application or application in the group.
4. The filing fee needs to be paid as per the second schedule of the act; Please refer pricing section above to know government fee applicable for your work.
5. The application of copyright and all other documents need to be signed by the applicant
6. A power of attorney in the name of advocate duly accepted by him is required

Yes. Both published as well as unpublished work can be registered under copyright, and there is no bar in registering an already disclosed or published the work.

Yes. A computer is considered as a literary work along with computer database and its tables. Hence it can be very well registered under copyright. For registration, the “Source Code” and the “Object Code” need to be supplied for registration of copyright for a computer programme or software.

A website consists of web pages or a set of interconnected web pages hosted on a server and available for browsing by the public on www through the internet. One website may have various copyrightable items in it concerning section 13 of The Copyright Act, 1957 and these may be as under

1. Text
2. Tables
3. Computer Programme
4. Compilations including Computer Databases
5. Photographs
6. Paintings
7. diagram
8. map
9. chart
10. plain work of art
11. Musical Work & Graphical Notations of such work
12. Sound Recordings
13. Cinematographic Work

As a whole website cannot be filed under one application, however, the applicant needs to identify its original work of various categories and submit a separate application for each such copyright. There are multiple items of a website which can not be protected under copyright, and these are as under

1. Website as a whole is not subject to copyright protection.
2. Ideas or future plans of websites,
3. Functional elements of websites,
4. The unclaimable material,
5. Layout and format or ‘look and feel’ of a website or its web page;
6. Other common, unoriginal material such as names, icons or familiar symbols.

After filing of the application, the department allots a diary number and waits for 30 days, also known as the waiting period, in case no objection is received from the public the examiner of the copyright examines the application. If the examiner comes up with any discrepancy, the same need to be resolved within 45 days. Therefore, it takes approx 2-4 months of time in the normal course in the registration of the copyright

An app is a complete and self-contained full-fledged computer programme designed to perform a specific task or tasks. In general an app has a primary dynamic content which interacts with its users. An app may be on a computer, mobile or any other handheld the handheld wearable devices. The App can be registered as a computer program under literary work category, wherein the applicant needs to provide “Source Code” and the “Object Code” of the App. The protection fo copyright shall be available to cover the screen displays as generated by the program provided the display image is also provided along with the computer programme. Mere snapshot of the display of screens of an app is not registerable under copyright.