KSLU Solved Question Papers
Intellectual Property Rights II
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2015 Jun Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Intellectual Property Rights II 2015 Jun Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2015 Jun examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2015 Jun examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1What is copyright ? To what extent copyright in literary, dramatic and musical work subsists ? Discuss.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what copyright is (section 14: an exclusive right, subject to the Act, to do or authorise listed acts; statutory only, section 16); then the extent of copyright in literary, dramatic and musical works measured six ways: (1) subject, the three definitions and their edges (sections 2(o), 2(h), 2(p); lyrics and music apart; titles, performances and ideas outside: Krishika Lulla, Fortune Films); (2) quality, originality (section 13(1)(a); University of London Press); (3) territory and nationality (sections 13(2), 5, 40; the International Copyright Order, 1999); (4) the rights, section 14(a)(i) to (vii), with adaptation (section 2(a)) and exhaustion (Explanation to section 14); (5) time (sections 22 to 24, 28); (6) limits and coexisting rights (sections 13(4), 17, 52, 31 to 31D; Indian Performing Right Society); a comparative table; conclusion.
What copyright is
Section 14 of the Copyright Act, 1957 defines copyright as "the exclusive right subject to the provisions of this Act, to do or authorise the doing of" listed acts in respect of a work. Three ideas lie in that definition. Copyright is exclusive: only the owner may do the acts. It is subject to the Act: it has the limits the Act sets. It covers listed acts only, so whatever is not listed is free. Copyright exists only under the Act or another law, never at common law (section 16).
So the real question is one of extent. For literary, dramatic and musical works, the extent can be measured in six ways.
1. Extent by subject: which works qualify
Literary work includes computer programmes, tables and compilations, including computer databases (section 2(o)). The definition is inclusive. Books, articles, letters, lectures, examination papers, catalogues and the words of a song all qualify. Literary merit is not needed.
Dramatic work includes a piece for recitation, a choreographic work, an entertainment in dumb show, and the scenic arrangement or acting form. Its form must be fixed in writing or otherwise. A cinematograph film is not a dramatic work (section 2(h)).
Musical work means a work consisting of music, including its graphical notation. It excludes words or actions meant to be sung, spoken or performed with the music (section 2(p)). So in a song the tune is a musical work, and the lyrics a separate literary work. The composer is author of one and the lyricist of the other (section 2(d)(i), (ii)).
What falls outside. Ideas, themes, facts and short titles carry no copyright.
Krishika Lulla v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta, Supreme Court, 15 October 2015. A writer said the film title "Desi Boyz" copied the title of his synopsis.
Held. A title alone is not a literary work. The criminal complaint was quashed.
An actor's performance is not a dramatic work either.
Fortune Films International v. Dev Anand, AIR 1979 Bom 17. An unpaid actor tried to stop exhibition of a film, claiming copyright in his performance.
Held. A performance by a film artiste was not a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work under the Act as it then stood. Today performers have separate performers' rights, not copyright (section 38A).
2. Extent by quality: originality
Copyright subsists only in original literary, dramatic and musical works (section 13(1)(a)).
University of London Press Ltd. v. University Tutorial Press Ltd., [1916] 2 Ch 601. A rival publisher reprinted a university's matriculation papers.
Held. The papers were original literary works. Original does not mean novel or inventive. It means the work originates from the author and is not copied. Setting the papers needed brainwork, memory and judgment.
Indian law now asks for skill and judgment beyond mere mechanical labour (Eastern Book Company, 2008). A copied text, or one changed only trivially, gains no new copyright.
3. Extent by territory and nationality
Copyright subsists "throughout India" (section 13(1)), but only where the work has an Indian link (section 13(2)).
- A published work qualifies if first published in India, or if its author was an Indian citizen when it was first published abroad.
- An unpublished work qualifies if its author was an Indian citizen or domiciled in India when he made it.
- A work published in India within thirty days of its publication abroad counts as first published in India. The exception is where the other country gives a shorter term (section 5).
- In a work of joint authorship, every author must meet the condition (Explanation to section 13(2)).
Foreign works are brought in by orders under section 40. The International Copyright Order, 1999 extends protection to works of Berne and other treaty countries. So a novel first published in Paris by a French author is protected in India too.
4. Extent by rights: what the owner controls
For a literary, dramatic or musical work, the owner alone may (section 14(a)):
- reproduce it in any material form, including storing it electronically;
- issue copies to the public, other than copies already in circulation;
- perform it in public or communicate it to the public;
- make a cinematograph film or sound recording of it;
- make a translation;
- make an adaptation;
- do any of the acts in (1) to (6) in relation to a translation or an adaptation.
Adaptation includes turning a novel into a play, a play into a novel, a book into picture form, and arranging or transcribing music (section 2(a)). So the author controls not only copies of the text but its new forms. The issue right does not reach a copy once sold. Such a copy is "already in circulation" (Explanation to section 14). That is why a second-hand bookseller does not infringe.
5. Extent in time
| Situation | Term |
|---|---|
| Work published in the author's lifetime | Life and sixty years from the next 1 January (section 22) |
| Joint authorship | Sixty years from the death of the last author to die (section 22) |
| Anonymous or pseudonymous work | Sixty years from first publication, unless identity is revealed (section 23) |
| Posthumous work | Sixty years from first publication (section 24) |
| Government work | Sixty years from first publication (section 28) |
After the term ends, the work enters the public domain and anyone may use it.
6. Extent against others: limits and coexisting rights
Ownership. The author is the first owner, with exceptions (section 17(a) to (c)). A journalist's employer owns his work for its paper. A client owns a work commissioned for payment, and an employer one made under employment.
Coexisting rights. A song in a film carries several copyrights at once: the lyrics, the music, the film and the sound recording. Copyright in a film or recording does not affect the separate copyright in the underlying works (section 13(4)).
Indian Performing Right Society Ltd. v. Eastern India Motion Pictures Association, AIR 1977 SC 1443. A performing rights society claimed fees from cinemas for film songs whose composers had assigned their rights to it.
Held. A producer who commissions music for a film owns it as part of the film, and need not pay the society for screening. The 2012 amendment later protected the authors. They keep an equal share of royalties for uses outside the cinema hall (the provisos to sections 17 and 18, and section 19(9)).
Exceptions. Fair dealing, education, libraries, judicial use and the other clauses of section 52 limit every owner.
Licences imposed by law. Compulsory licences may be granted (sections 31, 31A, 31B). Statutory licences apply to cover versions and broadcasting (sections 31C, 31D). Both allow use on payment, even against the owner's wish.
The three classes compared
| Point | Literary | Dramatic | Musical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Definition | Section 2(o), inclusive | Section 2(h), fixed in writing or otherwise | Section 2(p), music only |
| Author | Writer | Dramatist | Composer |
| Typical adaptation | Novel into play or comic | Play into novel | Arrangement or transcription |
| Excluded | Titles, ideas, facts | Films; actors' performances | Lyrics (a literary work) |
| Term | Life plus sixty years | Life plus sixty years | Life plus sixty years |
Conclusion. Copyright is the exclusive right, subject to the Act, to do the acts that section 14 lists. In literary, dramatic and musical works it subsists only in original works with an Indian connection or a treaty link. It covers reproduction, issue, performance, communication, films, recordings, translations and adaptations for the author's life and sixty years. Ideas, titles and performances lie outside it. Ownership rules, coexisting rights, section 52 and statutory licences limit it.
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