Copyright Registration - Intellectual Property

WHAT IS TRADEMARK OPPOSITION?

Copyright ensures to unique work of origin fixed in any unmistakable mode of articulation. Unique work implies the work which isn’t replicated of any current work. Copyright is a lawful appropriate to forestall others causing duplicates, to distribute, replicate, circulate and so on of your work without your authorization. Copyright gives assurance just to articulations, and not to thoughts, methodology, techniques for activity or scientific ideas. It implies that copyright does not offer insurance to the idea but rather it offers security to the articulation of an idea. In Pakistan, copyright protection is governed by the provisions of the Copyright Ordinance, 1962 (“the Ordinance”) which is modeled on the English Act of 1914. Pakistan is a member of the Berne Copyright Union and the Universal Copyright Convention.

RULES & PROCEDURE FOR COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION IN PAKISTAN

Section 10 of the ordinance gives that the copyright will subsist all through Pakistan in the accompanying classes of works, which are as follows:
• Original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works
• Cinematographic works
• Records.
In the light of the above, works covered by the copyright include, but are not limited to, novels, poems, plays, reference work, newspapers, computer programs, databases, films, musical compositions, choreography, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, architecture, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER SOFTWARE COPYRIGHTS IN PAKISTAN

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were many clashes with respect to computer programming insurance. A few specialists were in the feeling that the PC programming ought to be ensured under the copyright framework and some were in the supposition that it ought to be secured under the patent framework. At last, they came to accord that PC programming ought to be secured by copyright, while apparatus utilizing PC programming or programming related developments ought to be ensured by patent. The purposes for this accord was that the Copyright framework gives assurance just to articulations, and not to ideas, methodology, techniques for activity or numerical ideas all things considered, while a patent framework gives an exclusive right for invention, which is an item or a procedure that gives another method for accomplishing something, or offers another specialized answer for an issue.
In Pakistan, the computer program has been secured under the copyright area. For this reason, the meaning of ‘artistic work is changed by the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1992 to incorporate PC programs under the copyright system. The statute characterizes abstract work to incorporate work, on PC programs “that is to state projects recorded on any disc, tape, perforated media or other data stockpiling gadgets, which, whenever sustained into or situated in a PC or PC based gear is fit for replicating any data.
The capacity of a PC program or what the program does isn’t protectable under the copyright system, rather it gives the proprietor just the privilege to avoid any other person from copying the articulation or way of introduction of the arrangement of guidelines that establish the program.

Is Copyright Registration Necessary For Protection?

The Ordinance does not require mandatory enrollment of copyright but rather enlistment provides certain rights and is exceptionally suggested. Copyright rights are gotten consequently without its enlistment or different formalities. The rights under copyright law emerge when the creator makes the work in any substantial medium. As it has been determined over that Pakistan is an individual from Berne Convention 1886 for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as indicated by the Berne Convention, scholarly and creative works are ensured without formalities in the nations gathering to that Convention.

Procedure for Registration Of Copyright in Pakistan

The creator or author or other individual intrigued by copyright in any work may make an application in the recommended structure joined by the endorsed expense to the Registrar for entering points of interest of the work in Register of Copyrights. For each work, a separate application must be documented by the candidate. For enrollment of copyright, the above-mentioned formalities are mandatory, for assistance we are (Spectrum Consultancy) always there.

Requirements For Registration Of Copy Right In Pakistan

• Application for registration in triplicate in Form-II. The person applying for registration shall simultaneously send a copy of the application to every other person who may be affected and interested in the copyright of the work.
• All applicants for registration must be accompanied by Statement of Particulars. This statement will be submitted in triplicate.
• In addition to the Statement of Particulars, a Statement of Further Particulars in triplicate is also required to be submitted for the registration of Literary, Dramatic, Musical and Artistic works.
• Two copies of the actual work to be copyrighted.
• Where professional’s services are hired to create a work to be copyrighted, affidavit of that professional will be submitted along with the application stating that he does not have any right or claim regarding the work to be copyrighted.
• Registration fee of Rs. 1000/- by Demand Draft made out in favor of DG IPO.
• For the registration of artistic work the applicant shall place an advertisement in the newspaper and submits two copies of this advertisement to the registrar copyrights. Advertisement should be placed in the prescribed format as given in the Copyright Rules.

Copyright for foreign Authors in Pakistan

The Ordinance has particular arrangements for Pakistani and remote works. It gives that a work published in Pakistan, will be viewed as first published in Pakistan regardless of whether this work has been published at the same time in some other nation, except if procedure of achieving, copyright for such work in that nation is of shorter term. The work will be viewed as at the same time published in Pakistan and in another country, if the time between the production in Pakistan and the production in that nation does not surpass thirty days. The Ordinance likewise qualifies a corporate body for be considered domiciled in Pakistan on the off chance that it is consolidated under any law, in power, in Pakistan or it has a set up spot of business in Pakistan.

DURATION OF COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION

Section 18 of the ordinance provides that in published literary (including computer program), dramatic, musical and artistic work copyright shall subsist within the lifetime of the author until fifty years after the death of the author.