Copyright means the exclusive right to do or authorize others to do certain acts in relation to (I) literacy, dramatic and artistic works (ii) cinematograph films (iii) audio recordings. Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection granted under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, to the creator of the original works of authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works. The copyright vests in original work and in India it is not mandatory, but useful in courts where civil and/or criminal proceedings can be taken to protect it.

Indian Copyright Act affords separate and exclusive copyright protection for the following 7 clauses of work:

• Original Literary work.
• Original Dramatic work.
• Original Musical work.
• Original Artistic work.
• Cinematographs films.
• Sound Recording.
• Computer programming.

Computer programmes whether in source or object code shall be protected as literary works under the Berne Convention. The copyright work can be registered in India with Indian copyright office.

However, Computer programmes claimed with hardware to bring out tangible results will be protected under Indian Patents Act.

Various countries of the world have joined to form convention for the protection of copyright owned by its nationals in other countries. India is a member of Berne Convention and Universal Copyright Convention. Now in India Copyright owners can protect their copyright in almost any country of the world.

The term of the Copyright is the life of the author of the work plus sixty years with certain exceptions.

• Full Name, Address, Nationality and Nature of the Business of the Applicant.
• Full Name, Address & Nationality of the Properietor/Partener/Directors of the Applicant.
• Nature of the Applicants interest in the Copyright of the work.
• The year & countries where the work has been published and the year of publication.
• The year & country of last publication.

• Power of Attorney signed by the proprietor/partner of the firm and in the case of companies, by Secretary or Director of the Company. (Please note that the power of Attorney needs not to be legalized or Notarized).
• Six copies of the mark.
• In case of labels, which can be used as a Trademark, firstly clear copyright search certificate has to be received from the Trademark office and only there after, application for copyright can be filed in the copyright office.