The Copyright Office
Chapter One Hundred Eleven
Syllabus topic 3.4, "Copyright office and Boards."
Pages 450 to 453 of 719
In one line
There is one office for the whole country, it works under the Registrar, the Registrar works under the Central Government, and it has a seal.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 9 of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides that there shall be established for the purposes of this Act an office to be called the Copyright Office, that it shall be under the immediate control of the Registrar of Copyrights who shall act under the superintendence and direction of the Central Government, and that there shall be a seal for the Copyright Office.
Why the law has this at all
Because the Act needs a place. The Register of Copyrights is kept there under section 44, applications are made there under section 45, licences are granted by the Registrar on directions under Chapter VI, and notices of relinquishment go there under section 21.
Because a seal makes documents provable. Section 48 makes a copy of an entry certified by the Registrar and sealed with the seal of the Copyright Office admissible in all courts without further proof.
And because the office is administrative and not judicial. It sits under the superintendence and direction of the Central Government, which is why an appeal lies from the Registrar's decisions rather than a review by the Government.
The provision itself
Section 9(1). "There shall be established for the purposes of this Act an office to be called the Copyright Office."
Section 9(2). "The Copyright Office shall be under the immediate control of the Registrar of Copyrights who shall act under the superintendence and direction of the Central Government."
Section 9(3). "There shall be a seal for the Copyright Office."
Broken down
"For the purposes of this Act". The office exists to do what the Act gives it, and no more. It has no general jurisdiction over intellectual property.
Two levels of control. The office is under the immediate control of the Registrar; the Registrar acts under the superintendence and direction of the Central Government.
"Immediate control" is deliberate. It marks the Registrar out from the Government: the Government directs him, and he controls the office.
And the seal is a statutory instrument, not decoration. It is what makes a certified extract self-proving under section 48.
Where the Copyright Office sits in the machinery
| Body | Source | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| the Copyright Office | section 9 | keeps the Register, receives applications, grants licences on direction, publishes entries |
| the Registrar of Copyrights | section 10 | controls the office, decides applications, makes entries, exercises civil court powers under section 74 |
| Deputy Registrars | section 10(1) | discharge assigned functions under the Registrar's superintendence |
| the Central Government | section 9(2) | superintendence and direction; registers copyright societies under section 33 |
| the High Court | sections 50 and 72, as amended in 2021 | rectification of the Register, and appeals from the Registrar |
| the Commercial Court | Chapter VI and sections 6, 19A and 53A, as amended in 2021 | compulsory licences, assignment disputes, publication questions and the resale share |
The rest of this chapter
Module one is free. The rest of this chapter comes with the LL.M. Intellectual Property and Information Technology Semester 2 notes.
You are reading a chapter from a later module. Everything in module one of every subject stays free, and so does every question paper and the syllabus.
Notes + Solved papers: ₹798 Already bought it? Sign in
Or notes only: ₹499
Or solved papers only: ₹499
Free either way: question papers, the syllabus, and module one of every subject.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.