Copyright is a long established form of intellectual property right. Modern Copyright laws protect literary and dramatic works, musical works, artistic works including maps and technical drawings, etc., photographs and audiovisual works (cinematograph films, video etc.).

The principal purpose of copyright is to protect expression of thoughts and ideas.

Copyright protects ‘literary and artistic works’ and includes every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of expression. The expressions ‘literary and artistic works’ includes arts, writings, music, paintings and sculptures, softwares, etc and includes every original work of authorship.

Copyright protects any new and original arrangement or compilation of material by an author by using his own skills, labour and capital.

The Copyright Act, 1957 came into effect from January 1958.  This Act has been amended five times since then, i.e., in 1983, 1984, 1992, 1994 and 1999, with the amendment of 1994 being the most substantial.

The Indian Copyright Act today is compliant with most international conventions and treaties in the field of copyrights.  India is a member of the Berne Convention of 1886 (as modified at Paris in 1971), the Universal Copyright Convention of 1951 and the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of 1995.  Though India is not a member of the Rome Convention of 1961, the Copyright Act, 1957 is fully compliant with the Rome Convention provisions.

The Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement stipulate the subsistence of copyright in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works; cinematographic film and sound recordings. These classes includes variety of works like books, pamphlets and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons; dramatic or dramatic-musical works, choreographic works; musical composition, chirographic works; drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving; and lithography, photography, maps, plans, sketches, three dimensional works, translations, encyclopaedias and anthologies, softwares codes, multimedia productions, etc.

The duration of copyrights varies from country to country. The minimum duration of copyright protection under Berne Convention is 50 years. European Union and for countries of the European economic area and in the US the duration is 70 years. In India copyrights are protected for a period of sixty years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the author dies. The term of copyrights is calculated from the end of the year of the author’s death.

Information Required :

• Name, address and nationality of the Application.
• Nature of the Applicant's interest in the copyright of the work.

Documents Required :

• Description of the work.
• Title of the work.
• Power of Attorney (neither notarization nor consular legalization required) to be executed by an individual or a representative of a corporation.
• Four copies of the work.

Jiya & Associates products for Design registration are as under :
Writing / Drafting/ Preparation of Design applications in all the areas; Design application filing and prosecution.