The Copyright (Amendment) Rules, 2021

-

Copyright comes with a bundle of rights in India. Even though the registration of Copyright isn't mandatory, it serves as a proof of ownership and/or prima facie evidence before the Court of law during enforcement of such Copyright. 

Lot many changes (pleasant changes) in functioning of Copyright registry have been observed in past five years. Digitization of records and process has been on top of all changes. 

The Government of India has recently released the Copyright (Amendment) Rules, 2021 on 30th March 2021. The primary objective of such an amendment is to bring the existing rules in parity with other relevant legislations and at par with technological advancements.


Sharing only relevant highlights of the amendment and its effects as below:-

1. Changes concerning the filing of applications for registration of Software Program Copyright:

Earlier the Copyright Rules mandated submission of the entire Source Code and Object Code while filing an application for registration of a Software Program. This requirement has been largely reduced by the Amended Rules which now prescribe the submission of “at least first 10 and last 10 pages of source code, or the entire source code if less than 20 pages, with no blocked out or redacted portions”.

The objective of such Amendment is to reduce the compliance by the Applicant and ensure confidentiality of a Software Programme. This is really a good news for software developers who want intellectual property protection for their programs but don't want to reveal the whole thing too. 

- Postal Orders will no longer be the mode of payment.

- Any document, where a fee is payable, is filed without the applicable fee, or with insufficient fee, it shall be deemed not to have been filed.


2. Electronic mode of communication:

- Electronic mode of communication has been made the primary mode of communication to ensure smooth work environment and expedited compliances. Well this is an excellent move as it would reduce lot of burden on Applicant with regard to printing the compliance documents and sending it to Copyright Office. It would have positive environmental impact too. 

- Copyright Journal has replaced the process of publication of notifications in the Official Gazette. Such Journal will be available on the website of the Copyright Office.


~until next time~

Cheers to good times! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starbucks vs. SardarBuksh

-
Image
Branding your brand does not and must not mean that you copy somebody else's brand name and get a free ride upon their good will.  Trademark law is very clear in this aspect while keeping two most essential pre-requisites before registering a trademark as - 1. Trademark has to be distinctive; 2. Trademark must not be descriptive. Lot many brand owners make mistakes in understanding the concept of distinctiveness and start using brand names which are similar to the already existing trademarks which are famous. Making minor changes here and there either in spellings or color combinations or finding a rhyming words to the existing trademarks does not yield distinctiveness to your brand name. Some of the brand owners knowingly make use of such deceptively similar marks and then get sued.  In one of such interesting cases in Delhi High Court, the Court has ruled in favor of Starbucks who filed a case against a local coffee shop chain SardarBuksh for copying word mark a
Read more

Trade Marks and U(nu)sual Misunderstandings

-
Trade Marks registration process in India has seen enormous changes in past 2-3 years. The number of Forms have been reduced from 64 to 8. The examination time has reduced from 2 years to 5 working days - believe it or not but its true and one of the fastest all over the world!   However, the change in law or rules has not impacted some common misconceptions that are prevalent among business owners about the Trade Marks. Thought it would be good to address them here: 1. I don't need to perform search..My Trade Mark is Original in toto Applicants commonly believe that the trade name they thought is distinctive enough and don't see any need to get a search done or to get an opinion from a practitioner. Let me say something unpleasant that the name you want to trademark probably isn’t as original as you think it is, at least not in the eyes of the Trade Marks Registry. Every year, thousands of trademark applications are rejected without refunds because they too closely resembl
Read more

The Jurisdiction Saga on the interplay of the Design Act, 2000 and the Commercial Courts Act, 2015

-
In a very lucid judgment in the case of S.D. Containers vs. Mold-tek Packaging Limited (Civil Appeal No. 3695 of 2020), the Supreme Court of India decided the matter clearing the air of doubt on the interplay of the Design Act, 2000 and the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. Relevant facts on background of the case -  Mold-tek Packaging Limited (hereinafter Plaintiff/Respondent), a manufacturer and seller of plastic packaging material who obtained design registration for its container's lids, jars etc. in 2015 and 2017. In late 2019, the Plaintiff/Respondent came to know about S.D. Containers (hereinafter Defendant/Appellant) who allegedly infringed design of the Plaintiff/Respondent. The Plaintiff/Respondent filed a civil suit before the Commercial Court at Indore seeking permanent injunction against the Defendant/Appellant from copying and using the design of the Plaintiff/Respondent as described in Design Application No. 299039 and 299041 for the containers and lids, respectively. The
Read more