LLM Group 3 Law of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Copyrights Law and other related rights 2025-26 Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: three definitions and the examiner has numbered them for you. Take "work" from section 2(y) and then open each of the three limbs with its own definition, because the marks are in the sub-definitions and not in the two-line parent. Add the conditions in section 13 without which no copyright subsists at all, and the originality requirement with its case. Then "publication" from section 3, which is shorter than candidates expect and wider than they expect. Then first publication in India from section 5, where the THIRTY DAY rule is the answer the examiner is looking for. Close by explaining why all three definitions matter in practice, which is that they decide protection, term and territory.

"Work": section 2(y)

Section 2(y) defines "work" exhaustively. It means any of the following works, namely:

(i) a LITERARY, DRAMATIC, MUSICAL or ARTISTIC work; (ii) a CINEMATOGRAPH FILM; (iii) a SOUND RECORDING.

Dramatic work, section 2(h). It includes any piece for recitation, choreographic work or entertainment in dumb show, the scenic arrangement or acting form of which is FIXED IN WRITING OR OTHERWISE, but DOES NOT INCLUDE a cinematograph film. Two features follow: fixation is required, unlike for a literary work; and a film is excluded because it is separately protected under limb (ii).

Musical work, section 2(p). A work consisting of MUSIC, and it includes any graphical notation of such work, but DOES NOT INCLUDE any words or any action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music. The lyric is therefore a separate literary work with a separate author and a separate term, which is why film music generates so much litigation.

Artistic work, section 2(c). It means (i) a painting, sculpture, drawing including a diagram, map, chart or plan, an engraving or a photograph, WHETHER OR NOT ANY SUCH WORK POSSESSES ARTISTIC QUALITY; (ii) a work of architecture; and (iii) any other work of ARTISTIC CRAFTSMANSHIP. The italicised words are the important ones: aesthetic merit is irrelevant to a painting or a drawing, but a work of artistic craftsmanship under limb (iii) must have some artistic character, which is why the limb is narrowly construed.

Section 13(2), the connecting factor. Copyright does not subsist unless: in the case of a PUBLISHED work, it is first published in India, or where first published outside India, the author was at the date of publication, or at death if he had died, a CITIZEN OF INDIA; in the case of an UNPUBLISHED work other than architecture, the author was at the date of making a citizen of or domiciled in India; and in the case of ARCHITECTURE, the work is located in India. Sections 40 and 41 allow the Central Government to extend protection to foreign works, and the International Copyright Order, 1999 does so for the works of nationals of Berne, Universal Copyright Convention and World Trade Organization member States.

Section 13(3), the derivative bar. Copyright does not subsist in a cinematograph film if a substantial part of the film is an infringement of the copyright in any other work, nor in a sound recording made in respect of a literary, dramatic or musical work if in making it the copyright in that work has been infringed. A pirate cannot acquire copyright in the product of his piracy.

Section 13(4), the layering rule. The copyright in a film or a sound recording does NOT affect the separate copyright in any work in respect of which the film or recording is made. So a song on a record involves at least four copyrights: the lyric, the composition, the sound recording and, if filmed, the film.

The modern Indian standard is Eastern Book Company v. D.B. Modak, (2008) 1 SCC 1. Publishers of copy-edited law reports complained that their reports had been reproduced on CD-ROM. The Supreme Court rejected both the English "sweat of the brow" test, which would protect mere labour, and the American requirement of novelty, and adopted a middle position: originality requires a MINIMAL DEGREE OF CREATIVITY, which is skill and judgment and not merely capital, labour and effort. Applying it, no copyright subsisted in the raw text of the judgments, which are government works in the public domain under section 52(1)(q), but copyright did subsist in the publishers' own additions, including paragraph numbering, the division of opinions and the notation of which judges concurred.

A related limit is Krishika Lulla v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta, (2016) 2 SCC 521, where the Supreme Court held that there is NO COPYRIGHT IN THE TITLE of a work standing by itself, because a title is not a work in which copyright can subsist; protection for a title, if any, lies in passing off or trade mark law.

"Publication": section 3

Section 3 defines publication in one sentence: "publication" means making a work AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC by issue of copies or by COMMUNICATING THE WORK TO THE PUBLIC.

A work shall be deemed to be FIRST PUBLISHED IN INDIA notwithstanding that it has been published SIMULTANEOUSLY in some other country, UNLESS that country by its law grants a SHORTER TERM of copyright for such work. So simultaneous publication abroad does not displace Indian first publication unless the other country is less generous.

The explanation supplies the test of simultaneity: a work shall be deemed to be published simultaneously in India and in another country if the time between the publication in India and the publication in the other country does not exceed THIRTY DAYS, or such other period as the Central Government may in relation to any specified country determine.

The rule matters for two reasons. It decides whether the section 13(2)(i) connecting factor is satisfied for a published work whose author is not an Indian citizen. And it governs the interaction with the Berne Convention, whose Article 3 uses the country of first publication as a point of attachment and whose Article 5(4) defines the country of origin by reference to it.

Why the three definitions matter together

Classification under section 2(y) decides which bundle of rights in section 14 the owner has, and the rights differ markedly by class. Publication under section 3 starts the term running for films, sound recordings, photographs, anonymous and pseudonymous works and posthumous works under sections 25 to 29, whereas for ordinary literary works the term runs from the author's death under section 22. And first publication under section 5, with the connecting factors in section 13(2) and the International Copyright Order, decides whether Indian copyright exists at all for a foreign work.