In India, the Copyright act lays down a set of rules, regulations and remedies for acting upon infringement of someone’s copyrighted work. These laws however only apply once the ownership or authorship of the work is proven. This can be done easily with the help of a Copyright Registration Certificate which we at SunBrio help our clients obtain.

In India, any police office above the rank of a Sub Inspector has the right to take action against any infringement of copyrighted work. He has the right to take the decision whether to take an action or not depending upon his satisfaction over the fact that the work is being infringed. If he is satisfied that an offence of the Copyright Act as per the law is being made, he can seize all the work being copied without the necessity of a warrant. He can also seize the plates used for infringing the copyrighted work. But, he shall also present all this seized work in front of a magistrate as soon as possible.

Any court not inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class can try for the office under the Copyright Act. Thus, this helps in speeding the hearing procedure as well. The copies are disposed by handing them over to the owner of the Copyright.

Thus, in India, there is immense importance to someone’s intellectual property and the laws in place also help protect his work from being infringed upon by the masses.

Getting a Copyright registrationcertificate, thus becomes even more important as all these provisions are covered to protect the owner of the copyright from his infringement. If the ownership or authorship is not proven sufficiently, then it can delay the protection over the infringement.

The author can prove his authorship by having his name written on the work he produces, and also by getting a copyright registration certificate.

We at SunBrio, charge only Rs 4,000/- [Starting] for getting a Copyright Registration Certificate from the Government of India for your artwork. The process takes about 3 to 6 months, hence it is advised to at least apply for the certificate before publishing any artwork created by you. That can be used in the court of law as proof of ownership.

The Copyright Act also imposes a punishment for infringing on copyrighted work. This starts from Six months of imprisonment, Rs 50,000/- in Fine. Though, the maximum punishment is only Rs 1 Lakh and one year of imprisonment, but it also provides the owner of the copyright with all the copies produced through infringement. These copies can be further used by the owner, thus giving him a chance to earn from the infringement.