Entries in the Register

In one line

Anyone with an interest in a work may ask for it to be entered, on a form with a fee, after telling everyone else who claims an interest, and the Registrar may hold an inquiry before he enters it.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 45 of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides that the author or publisher of, or the owner of or other person interested in the copyright in, any work may make an application in the prescribed form accompanied by the prescribed fee to the Registrar of Copyrights for entering particulars of the work in the Register of Copyrights, and that on receipt of it the Registrar may, after holding such inquiry as he may deem fit, enter the particulars in the Register.

Why the law has this at all

Because a register nobody can add to is useless. Section 44 creates the book; section 45 is the door into it.

Because more than one person can be interested in one work. A publisher, an assignee and an author may all have a stake, and the section lets any of them apply while requiring notice to the others.

And because an artistic work can be two things at once. A label, a logo or a packaging design is an artistic work under the Copyright Act and may also be a trade mark. The proviso exists to stop the Copyright Office being used to get around the Trade Marks Registry.

The provision itself

Section 45(1). "The author or publisher of, or the owner of or other person interested in the copyright in, any work may make an application in the prescribed form accompanied by the prescribed fee to the Registrar of Copyrights for entering particulars of the work in the Register of Copyrights."

The proviso. "In respect of an artistic work which is used or is capable of being used in relation to any goods or services, the application shall include a statement to that effect and shall be accompanied by a certificate from the Registrar of Trade Marks referred to in section 3 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (47 of 1999), to the effect that no trade mark identical with or deceptively similar to such artistic work has been registered under that Act in the name of, or that no application has been made under that Act for such registration by, any person other than the applicant."

Section 45(2). "On receipt of an application in respect of any work under sub-section (1), the Registrar of Copyrights may, after holding such inquiry as he may deem fit, enter the particulars of the work in the Register of Copyrights."