Copyright

If you need help with copyright, this guide sets out the legal position and the next steps. Legals365 is the legal platform of Advocate B.K. Singh and associates, based in Delhi NCR.

In short. Under the Copyright Act 1957, copyright arises automatically when an original work is created; registration with the Copyright Office is optional but gives prima facie evidence of ownership. Assignments and licences must be in writing. If someone copies your work, you can send a notice, seek takedown, and file a suit for injunction and damages, usually in a commercial court or the Delhi High Court.

Copyright protects the expression of ideas: the text of a book or blog, the code of an app, a photograph, a song, a film, an architectural drawing, a logo design. It does not protect the idea itself, a business method or a title on its own. Most copyright problems that reach a lawyer are not about whether something is protected but about who owns it, what the contract allowed, and how fast a copy can be taken down.

This page explains what copyright covers, who owns it, how registration works, how to assign and license rights safely, how infringement is proved and remedied in civil and criminal law, and how the rules apply to software, photographs, archives, online platforms and digital businesses. It is written for creators, businesses that commission or use creative work, and anyone who has received a copyright notice. The law described is the position as of October 2026.

Law

Copyright Act 1957 (as amended in 2012), Copyright Rules 2013; Information Technology Act 2000 s.79 and the IT Rules 2021 for online platforms; Commercial Courts Act 2015 for suits

Registration

Optional; application to the Registrar of Copyrights under s.45, with a 30-day window for objections; the entry in the Register is prima facie evidence (s.48)

Term

Generally the author's life plus 60 years; 60 years from publication for photographs, films, sound recordings, anonymous works and government works

Forum

Suit in the District Court (commercial court) where the plaintiff resides or carries on business (s.62), or the Delhi High Court IP Division where its pecuniary jurisdiction applies; criminal complaint to police under s.63

Time limit

Suit for damages generally within 3 years of the infringement; each continuing act of infringement gives a fresh cause of action; appeal against the Registrar's order to the High Court

Documents

Drafts and source files showing creation, publication proof, employment or commissioning contracts, assignments and licences, evidence of the copy, registration certificate if any

What copyright protects in India

Section 13 of the Copyright Act protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings. Literary works include computer programs, tables and compilations, including databases. Artistic works include paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, architecture and works of artistic craftsmanship. Originality in India means the work originates from the author with some skill and judgment, not merely labour; a mechanical copy of facts does not qualify, but a creative selection and arrangement can.

Copyright is a bundle of exclusive rights listed in section 14: to reproduce the work, issue copies, perform or communicate it to the public, make adaptations and translations, and for films and recordings, to sell or rent copies. Related rights protect performers (section 38) and broadcasters (section 37). Authors also have moral rights under section 57, which let them claim authorship and object to distortion that harms their reputation, even after assigning the economic rights.

What copyright does not protect is just as important. Ideas, concepts, facts, news as such, short phrases, names and slogans are outside it. Names and slogans may be protected as trademarks instead; our page on trademark registration and infringement covers that. Industrial designs applied to products are protected under the Designs Act, and under section 15 a design capable of registration loses copyright once more than 50 copies are made industrially. Inventions belong to patent law, explained on our page on patents and industrial designs.

Who owns the copyright

The author is the first owner, under section 17, unless an exception applies. The author of a literary work is the writer; of a photograph, the photographer; of a computer program, the programmer, and of a computer-generated work, the person who causes it to be created; of a film or sound recording, the producer. Where a work is made by an employee in the course of employment under a contract of service, the employer owns it, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. A journalist's work for a newspaper is owned by the proprietor for publication in the paper, while other rights stay with the journalist.

Commissioned work is the trap. For a photograph, painting, portrait, engraving or film made for payment at someone else's instance, the person who commissioned it owns the copyright unless the contract says otherwise. But for other commissioned work, such as software developed by an outside agency, website text written by a freelancer, or a logo designed by a studio, the author owns the copyright unless it has been assigned in writing. Businesses that paid for a website or an app often discover they do not own the code.

Joint authorship arises where two or more people collaborate and their contributions are not distinct. Each co-owner can generally use the work, but licensing it exclusively needs everyone's consent. Where a work was created by artificial intelligence with little human input, ownership is unsettled in India: the Act was not written for it, and the question of whether training AI systems on copyrighted works infringes is being litigated in the Delhi High Court while the government has floated a licensing model. Treat AI outputs as a risk to be managed by contract rather than as owned assets.

Copyright registration: why and how

Copyright exists from the moment the work is created and fixed. Registration under section 45 is optional, but it is still worth doing for works with commercial value. The extract from the Register of Copyrights is prima facie evidence of the particulars entered (section 48), which shifts the burden to the other side in a dispute, and police and customs act more readily on a registration certificate. For software, books, music, artwork and logos used in business, registration is cheap insurance.

Applications are filed online with the Copyright Office in New Delhi, with copies of the work, the statement of particulars, and, where the applicant is not the author, the assignment or a no-objection from the author. For an artistic work that is used or may be used as a trademark, the applicant must also file a search certificate from the Trade Marks Registry showing no identical or deceptively similar mark is registered. Software can be registered with a portion of the source code, and confidential sections can be blacked out in the manner the Rules allow.

After filing, there is a 30-day window for objections. If none comes and the examiner finds no discrepancy, the work is registered. If discrepancies are raised, the applicant replies; if an objection is filed by a third party, both sides are heard. The whole process commonly takes some months, depending on the category and the backlog. Appeals against the Registrar's orders now go to the High Court, since the Intellectual Property Appellate Board was abolished in 2021.

How to register a copyright

The steps are the same for most categories of work; only the attachments and particulars change.

1. Settle ownership first

   Check who the author is and whether ownership has passed by employment, commission or assignment. If you are not the author, get a written assignment or a no-objection from the author before filing.

2. Prepare the work and particulars

   Keep a final copy of the work in the format the Rules require, the date and place of first publication if published, and details of the author, owner and any licensees. For software, extract the code pages to be filed.

3. File online and pay the official fee

   File the application on the Copyright Office's e-filing system under the right category. Note the diary number, which is your reference for every later step.

4. Wait for the objection period

   There is a mandatory 30-day period for anyone to object. Do not ignore correspondence during this time, since replies to discrepancy letters have deadlines.

5. Respond to discrepancies or objections

   Answer examiner queries with documents. If a third party objects, a hearing follows; bring proof of creation and ownership, such as drafts, source files with metadata and dated correspondence.

6. Receive the registration and keep records

   Once registered, the entry and certificate are issued. File them with the original drafts and the ownership papers, because a dispute years later will need all three.

Registration does not stop infringement by itself. Its value is evidentiary and practical: it makes notices more credible and suits faster to prove.

Assignments and licences

An assignment transfers ownership of some or all rights. Under sections 18 and 19 it must be in writing and signed by the assignor, and it should identify the work, the rights assigned, the duration, the territory and the royalty or other consideration. The Act fills gaps against the assignee: if the period is not stated, it is deemed to be five years; if the territory is not stated, India; and if the assignee does not exercise the rights within one year, the assignment is deemed to lapse unless the deed says otherwise. Many informal assignments fail on these points.

A licence lets someone use the work while the owner keeps ownership. Under section 30 a licence must also be in writing. It can be exclusive or non-exclusive, limited by medium, platform, territory, term and number of copies. Since the 2012 amendment, authors of literary and musical works included in films and sound recordings keep a right to receive royalties for uses other than the screening of the film in a cinema, and that right cannot be waived by a blanket assignment. Our page on commercial contract drafting covers the drafting side.

In licensing disputes that reach Advocate B.K. Singh's office, the weak point is usually a one-line clause such as "all rights belong to the client" in an invoice or email, with no period, no territory and no list of rights. A properly drafted assignment schedule at the start of the engagement costs a fraction of the dispute it prevents.

Term of copyright by type of work

What counts as infringement

Section 51 makes it infringement to do anything that only the owner has the right to do, without a licence, or to permit a place to be used for public communication of infringing copies for profit, or to sell, distribute, exhibit or import infringing copies. The test is whether a substantial part of the protected expression has been taken. Substantial is judged by quality, not just quantity: copying the heart of a work can infringe even if it is a small portion.

Proving copying usually rests on access plus similarity. Direct evidence is rare; courts infer copying from shared errors, identical structure, matching code comments or metadata, and an implausible coincidence of detail. A lay observer test applies to films and artistic works: would an ordinary viewer get the unmistakable impression that one is a copy of the other. For software, courts look at literal code copying and, more cautiously, at structure and organisation.

Some uses are allowed without permission. Section 52 permits fair dealing for private or personal use including research, criticism or review, and reporting current events, as well as specific uses such as reproduction for judicial proceedings, certain educational uses, back-up copies of software by a lawful owner, and transient or incidental storage by intermediaries. Fair dealing is assessed on the purpose, amount and market effect of the use, and Indian courts have read the educational exception broadly. Commercial use is rarely fair dealing.

Key provisions for copyright cases

Remedies: notice, takedown and suit

The usual first step is a cease and desist legal notice identifying the work, the owner's title, the infringing copy and the demand: stop, remove, account for profits and pay damages. Many disputes end here, particularly with businesses that copied out of carelessness. For online copying, a complaint to the platform's grievance officer under the IT Rules, and the procedure under the Copyright Rules for intermediaries, can get content removed within days. Keep the complaint precise: exact URLs, proof of ownership and a statement of good faith.

If the infringer does not stop, the owner files a suit for permanent injunction, damages or rendition of accounts, with an application for an interim injunction under Order 39 rules 1 and 2 CPC. Copyright suits are commercial disputes, so pre-institution mediation under section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act applies unless urgent interim relief is sought, which is usually the case in infringement suits. Courts can appoint local commissioners to visit premises and seize infringing goods, and in piracy matters the Delhi High Court grants orders against unknown defendants and dynamic injunctions that extend to mirror websites.

The Delhi High Court's IP Division, set up in 2021, hears IP suits within its pecuniary jurisdiction, appeals from the Registrar of Copyrights and rectification matters. Below that value, suits go to the commercial courts at district level, such as those at Saket, Tis Hazari or Patiala House in Delhi, the Gautam Buddh Nagar court at Surajpur, or Ghaziabad. Our pages on cases in the Delhi High Court and commercial court suits explain those forums.

Criminal action for copyright infringement

Criminal remedies suit organised piracy and counterfeit goods better than ordinary business disputes. Under section 63, knowing infringement is punishable with imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine, with higher punishment for repeat offences under section 63A. Using an infringing copy of a computer program knowingly is separately punishable under section 63B. Because the Supreme Court has held the section 63 offence to be cognizable, the owner can file a complaint for registration of an FIR under section 173 of the BNSS, and police of the rank of sub-inspector and above can seize infringing copies.

A criminal complaint puts pressure on the infringer quickly but can backfire if ownership is unclear or the dispute is really a contractual one about licence scope. Courts quash FIRs that dress up commercial disagreements as crimes. Use it where the copying is plain, deliberate and commercial, and keep the civil suit running alongside. For online piracy, cheating and impersonation linked to copied content, see our page on cyber crime.

Software, apps and digital businesses

Software is protected as a literary work, so the code (source and object) is covered, along with screens and documentation to the extent they are original. What is often not covered is the functionality itself: a competitor that independently builds an app doing the same thing does not infringe. Protection for the underlying idea, if any, lies in confidentiality, contract and sometimes patent law. For startups, the most common problem is ownership of code written by founders before incorporation, by freelancers, or by an outsourced agency without a written assignment.

Digital transformation raises its own copyright risks. Businesses moving content online need licences that cover digital use, not just print. Stock images, fonts, music in videos, and open-source components each come with licence terms, and open-source licences such as copyleft licences can require disclosure of derivative code. Data scraping, content aggregation and training of AI systems raise questions of reproduction and of database protection as compilations. Personal data in the content brings in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act; see our page on data protection and DPDP compliance.

A copyright risk mitigation plan is simply a record of what the business uses and on what terms: an inventory of creative assets, the ownership or licence for each, assignment clauses in employment and vendor contracts, a takedown process for user-generated content, and a reply procedure for notices received. When Advocate B.K. Singh reviews a company's IP before an investment, the gaps are usually in vendor contracts rather than in employee contracts.

Photographs, visual art and design

Photographs are among the most copied works online and among the easiest to prove ownership of, because the photographer usually has the raw file and its metadata. The photographer owns the copyright unless the photograph was taken for payment at someone else's instance, in which case the commissioner owns it unless the contract says otherwise, or unless it was taken in the course of employment. Wedding, product and architectural photographers should therefore settle ownership and usage rights in their engagement terms.

Visual artists keep moral rights even after selling a painting or sculpture, and courts have recognised that mutilating or destroying a public artwork can violate them. Graphic designers creating logos should assign copyright expressly, since a logo used as a trademark also needs clear ownership for trademark registration. Architecture is protected as an artistic work, though the Act allows certain uses, such as making paintings, drawings or photographs of a building.

Historical, archival and public domain material

Once the term expires, a work falls into the public domain and anyone can use it. For most works by known authors, that means works whose authors died more than 60 years before the current calendar year. For photographs and films, the term runs from publication. But new copyright can arise in what is built on old material: a fresh translation, an annotated edition, a restored film with creative choices, or a curated anthology may each be protected even when the underlying work is free.

Archives and libraries often hold manuscripts, letters and photographs whose copyright status is unclear: unpublished works, works by unknown authors, or works where the heirs cannot be traced. Copyright research for such material means establishing the author, the date of death or publication, any assignment, and whether the use falls within an exception. The archive's own terms of access are a contract and can restrict use even where copyright has expired. Section 31A provides a route to a compulsory licence for orphan works in limited cases.

Documents for registration, licensing or a dispute

Common copyright mistakes

• No written assignment from freelancers or agencies. Paying for work does not transfer copyright, except for certain commissioned photographs, portraits and films.
• Assignments without period or territory. The Act then reads in five years and India, which may not be what the buyer intended.
• Assuming anything online is free to use. Public availability is not permission; most images and texts online are protected.
• Using criminal complaints for contract disputes. Courts quash such FIRs, and the owner loses credibility in the civil case.
• Delaying after discovering infringement. Delay weakens the case for an interim injunction even if limitation has not run out.
• Ignoring a notice received. A careful reply, and removal where the claim looks valid, often avoids a suit.

What to do this week

• List the creative works your business relies on and who made each one.
• Collect the contracts, invoices and emails that show ownership or licence for each.
• Get written assignments from founders, freelancers and agencies where they are missing.
• File registration for software, logos, publications and other works with commercial value.
• If you have found a copy, capture dated evidence before contacting the infringer.
• If you have received a notice, do not reply in anger; check ownership and the use before responding.

How the answer changes by party, work and place

For an individual creator, registration and clear licence terms are the main protection, and a notice followed by a platform complaint resolves most online copying. For a business that commissions work, the contract decides ownership, and an IP audit before a funding round or sale is worth doing; our pages on legal advisory for startups and intellectual property protection and licensing go further. For a platform hosting user content, the question is safe harbour under section 79 and a working takedown process.

Where you sue depends on where you carry on business and on the value. In Delhi the High Court's IP Division hears higher-value suits on its original side; in Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram suits go to the commercial courts at district level, with appeals to the Allahabad High Court or the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Criminal complaints go to the police station where the infringement takes place, or to the cyber police for online piracy.

If you want the papers checked before you act, the team of Advocate B.K. Singh at Legals365 can review them and tell you the next step: talk to a lawyer.

Frequently asked questions

Is copyright registration compulsory in India?

No. Copyright exists automatically once an original work is created. Registration under section 45 is optional, but the entry in the Register is prima facie evidence of ownership, which helps in notices, police complaints and suits.

How long does copyright registration take?

There is a mandatory 30-day period for objections after filing. If no objection or discrepancy arises, registration follows, and the whole process commonly takes some months depending on the category and the backlog at the Copyright Office.

Who owns copyright in work done by a freelancer?

Generally the freelancer, unless copyright has been assigned in writing. The exception is a photograph, painting, portrait, engraving or film made for payment at the client's instance, which the client owns unless the contract says otherwise.

How long does copyright last in India?

For most literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, the author's life plus 60 years. Photographs, films, sound recordings, anonymous works and government works are protected for 60 years from publication.

What can I do if someone copies my content online?

Capture dated evidence, send a notice to the person and a complaint to the platform's grievance officer with exact URLs and proof of ownership. If the content stays up, a suit for injunction and damages can be filed, and courts can order platforms to remove it.

Is copyright infringement a criminal offence?

Yes. Knowing infringement under section 63 is punishable with imprisonment of 6 months to 3 years and a fine. The Supreme Court held in 2022 that it is cognizable, so police can register an FIR and seize infringing copies.

Can I use a copyrighted image if I give credit?

Credit alone does not make use lawful. You need a licence from the owner unless the use falls within fair dealing under section 52, such as criticism, review or news reporting, and commercial use rarely qualifies.

Where do I file a copyright infringement suit in Delhi?

In the commercial court of the district court where you reside or carry on business, or in the Delhi High Court IP Division if the value is within its original jurisdiction. Section 62 allows the owner to sue at its own place of business, within limits set by the Supreme Court.

Does an assignment of copyright need to be registered?

No, it does not need registration, but it must be in writing and signed by the assignor. It should state the rights, duration, territory and consideration, because the Act otherwise reads in five years and India.

Is software protected by copyright?

Yes. Computer programs are literary works, so the source and object code are protected. The underlying functionality and ideas are not, and must be protected through contracts, confidentiality and, in some cases, patents.

Can a logo be registered as copyright and trademark?

Yes. A logo can be registered as an artistic work under the Copyright Act and as a trademark under the Trade Marks Act. For copyright registration of a logo, a search certificate from the Trade Marks Registry is required.

Are old books and photographs free to use?

Only if the copyright term has expired. For most books that means the author died more than 60 years ago; for photographs, 60 years from publication. New translations, annotations and restorations may carry their own copyright.