Copyright Search in India
The copyright owner of a work has the exclusive right to use it. In India, copyright registration is regulated by the Copyright Act 1957.
Thus, copyright registration grants exclusive rights to the owners/creators of literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, cinematograph films, and sound recordings. Particularly, the exclusive rights include a reproduction of the work and communication of the work to the public. Additionally, it includes the translation of the work, an adaptation of the work, and many others depending upon the type of work.
If a person wants to use certain copyrighted material, he/she has to obtain the copyright owner’s permission. There may be a scenario where a person is unsure whether a particular work is protected by copyright or is in the public domain.
A person can also be interested in identifying the copyright owner to obtain a license. Another scenario may be when a person wishes to challenge the copyright application. The publication of the details of the applications acts as a notice to any other person who wants to dispute the claim of the applicant, and any objections can be made via email within 30 days from the date of publication. The question that arises in all the above scenarios is how to contact the copyright owner and obtain details of the copyrighted work.
Information about the filing and registration of copyrights in India can be easily accessed on the website of the Indian Copyright Office. Let us now look at the ways how to check copyright status here.
Copyright Application Status
Fresh Applications
Information about recently filed copyright applications is available on the Fresh Applications Page. The applications filed are given in the format of a list arranged in chronological order starting from the latest application. The diary No, Filing date, Title, and the applicant’s name are the information given. The diary no. is a number given after filing the application with the Copyright Registry.
Monthly Applications
The applications filed can also be accessed in a monthly format. Therefore, all the applications filed in a particular month are compiled and uploaded in a PDF document.
This can be accessed through the new applications published monthly. The PDF publication for each month contains the diary no., the date of filing of an application, the title of the work, the category of the work, and the name of the applicant of all the applications filed in a particular month, starting from the 1st of the month.
The category of the work i.e., whether the work is a literary work/dramatic work/artistic work/ cinematograph film/sound recording, is the additional information contained in the monthly PDF documents.
How to search for registered work?
Information regarding an already registered copyright work can be found on the Search Registered Work page. The search can be conducted by selecting one or more options from Diary No, ROC Number, Applicant, and Title. For example, suppose diary no. is used to search for a particular registered work. In that case, the pieces of information displayed are the ROC number, Title of the Work, Diary number, and Applicant name.
E-register
The E-register consists of a monthly database in a downloadable PDF format. It can be accessed at E-register; The E-register contains all the RoC issued in a particular month. The PDF document contains the Diary No, RoC Mo, date, title of work, category, and applicant name. However, presently, the E-register contains information for all RoCs issued from the year 2016 to the present i.e., April 2020.