A Copyright is essentially a right not to copy someone’s work. A copyright gives the owner of the subject an exclusive right over his work. If a work is protected by copyright, no one can imitate, copy or reproduce the original work in any other way. A term of copyright in India is 60 years. It can be taken for the following works:
1. Music
2. Books
3. Manuscripts
4. Films
5. Fashion Designs
6. Training Manuals
7. Software
8. Literary Work
9. Performance
10. Paintings etc
Copyright Registration
It is not mandatory to get copyright protection but always advisable to do so because it will give the owner a certain set of minimum rights over his work and the protection that no one will be able to copy his work for a minimum period of time. Along with the application, three copies of published work should be sent. If the work to be registered is unpublished, a copy of the manuscript has to be sent along with the application for affixing the stamp of the Copyright Office in proof of the work having been registered.
Registration can be obtained for both published and unpublished works and the application can be signed and submitted by the applicant or an Advocate in whose favor a vakalatnama or Power of Attorney has been executed by the Applicant. In case of an application by an Advocate, the Power of Attorney signed by the applicant and accepted by the advocate should be enclosed with the application.
Some of the benefits of Registration:
1. Registration creates a public record of the ownership by the copyright holder.
2. It enables the holder to take legal action against infringers in a court.
3. Permits the owner to record the registration with Indian Customs to help in protection against the importation of infringing copies into India.
4. Protection enables creators to be rewarded for their originality.
5. One can sell or pass on the rights of the work to the other person with copyright protection.
6. One can openly exhibit his work with copyright protection.
Copyright Objection
During the process of registration, there are possibilities of application meeting with objections from other parties. An objection may arise for various reasons such as if there are similarities found in the application and existence of similar work.
The objection may arise anytime from 30 days of the filing of a copyright application. After a thorough examination of the application, if objections arise, the registrar informs the applicant of the same and requests for clarifications. As it is a legal obligation, it is important to file a response to the objection letter. If a response is not filed, then the registrar may cancel the copyright application and thus, the application is updated as ‘rejected’ in the copyright journal. To avoid any such rejections, it is important to respond to the objection to obtain and sustain the legal rights of the work.
Copyright objection letter is a legal letter and thus responding to it requires legal knowledge and drafting skills. There is no fixed format to draft a response to objection letter. Thus, either an applicant can draft the response by itself if it possesses enough legal knowledge or it can also hire a legal expert to help respond to the objection letter.
For more information regarding registration and objection visit http://www.ipindia.nic.in/
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