Copyright Registration in India 

 

   An overview

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         By law, copyright is the legal right entitled to creators of literary, dramatics, music, and artistic work and producers of films and recordings. When a proprietor registers for a Copyright, it gives him an exclusive right to reproduce, replicate, and distribute the work. Further, he can grant authority to some other entity for the same purpose. Register for copyright because it makes you communicate to the public, reproduce rights, and adapt & translate the works.

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Copyright registration in India - A detailed process

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The process for registering copyright involves the following steps:

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Step 1: The copyright registration application has to be filed in the concerned forms with the Copyright Registrar, mentioning the particulars of the work.

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Depending on the type of work, separate copyright applications may have to be filed.

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Our representatives will ask for basic details based on your copyright work. You will also need to send us three copies of your work and few signed documents including an authorisation letter that we will send by email. If the work is unpublished, two copies of the manuscript can be sent, where one copy will be returned to the applicant with seal and the other will be retained confidential with the Copyright Office. Applicants can also choose to send only the extracts of the manuscript instead of the whole unpublished copy.

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Step 2: The forms must be duly signed by the applicant and the application must be submitted by the Advocate under whose name Power of Attorney has been executed.

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Our experts will then prepare the copyright registration application and submit the necessary forms with the Registrar of Copyrights electronically.

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Step 3:  Once the application is submitted online, you will be issued the Diary number.

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Step 4: There is a waiting period of 30 days within which the Copyright Examiner reviews the application for potential discrepancies and/or objections.

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Step 5: If discrepancy and/or objections are found, discrepancy notice will be issued and the same needs to have complied within 30 days from the date of issuance of the notice.

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Step 6: Once the discrepancy has been removed or if there are no discrepancies or objections with the application, the copyright shall be registered and the Copyright Office shall issue the Extracts of Register of Copyrights (ROC) which is nothing but the Registration Certificate.

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          On completion of the copyright application, you will receive a diary number. Registration will take 12 months from this day. During this time, we may be asked for some clarifications on the same and/or some defects in the application and it will cost a further Rs. 1500 for responding and complying with the defects. Our representatives at Vakilsearch will inform you of the changes in the status of your application throughout.