Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

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Weekly IP Warm-UP!

GOOGLE V. SPAIN – SPANISH PUBLISHERS SUFFER AS GOOGLE NEWS CLOSES OPERATIONS A new Copyright law which has made it mandatory for Google, Yahoo and other news aggregators to pay licensing fee to all news publishers for using their stories or snippets in Google News, results in Google cutting its operations in Spain. However, the regulation allowed publishers to opt in to Google’s index, and prevent Google from paying licensing fee. COPYRIGHT REGULATION TO ALLOW PRIVATE COPYING; TO FACE IRE…

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This image depicts a Classical Guitar. This image is relevant as the article deals with the Entertainment News of Bollywood. Click on this Image for more Information.

Pirate’s Share: Piracy is Not Music to Many Ears

  The revenues from digital formats of music, as per an article published by RIAA, was about US$ 4.4B in 2013, and is growing at a exponential rate. The evolution of novel modes and means of digital exploitation has opened doors to music creators and owners across the world, as well as pirates. With more than 500 record labels releasing recordings in more than 20 languages, the music business in India is not only very large, but also diverse. The share of digital…

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New Copyright Law: Parody is Legal if Judge Thinks it’s Funny

Imagine, one day, if Copyright Laws were changed to account for the legality of a parody, a caricature or a pastiche[i], based on whether a Judge found it funny. For the citizens of UK, that day was October 1, 2014. Amendments to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, have done exactly this. Along with changes in Parody Law, there’s a new freedom by law to create personal copies, for private use[ii]. The UK Copyright Law, known to be anything but…

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Development of Copyright Law in the UK

  Following recommendations given in an independent report by Professor Ian Hargreaves in 2011, the UK Government had come up with several changes in the Copyright Law, covering aspects of fair dealing for accessible formats for the disabled, research and education, public administration, parody and personal copies for private use. Of these, regulations allowing personal copies of legally-bought music to be made for private use under exceptions to copyright are facing strong resistance from the UK music industry. Having come into force…

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This image depicts a Court Gavel. This image is relevant as the article deals with the decision delivered by Delhi High Court regarding Royalties to singers. Click on this Image for more Information.

Royalties for Singers – Delhi High Court passes a favorable order

For all of us waiting to hear of development in the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012, yes, we have some news for you. It is not for Lyricists, or for Music Composers, but for Singers this time! The Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA) has obtained a favourable order against one of the Delhi based clubs, Night Fever Club & Lounge, that has been playing songs and not paying Singers their due. The ISRA filed a suit against this lounge before the Delhi High Court…

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The image is from the BBC television show depicting Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. The post is about the expiry of copyright over Sherlock Holmes which is now in Public Domain. Click on the image to read post.

Emancipation of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson

One might ask, how do 127-year-old immortal characters of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson achieve emancipation? The answer is simple: Sherlock’s free for all now, as a direct result of Leslie Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate Ltd[i]. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, US, vide Order dated June 16, 2014, clarified that the characters of the Sherlockean World, creations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, are in the public domain now, as their copyright expired as early as 1997. With the…

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The image has a sheet of paper with text stating "Copyright License Agreement". The post contains notes relevant to Copyright Amendment Act 2012. Click on image to view post.

Reversion of Assignments & Licenses – Part III: Notes on Copyright Amendment, 2012

The Copyright Amendment brought in a few important changes with respect to mode of assignment of works. Not exercising due care with these provisions might result in reversion of rights. Thankfully, some of these changes were all encompassing and not limited only to authors or owners of works for films. Relevant provisions of Section 19 read as follows: "19. Mode of assignment. ... (4) Where the assignee does not exercise the rights assigned to him under any of the other…

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Assignment & Royalty – Part II: Notes on Copyright Amendment, 2012

One of the primary purposes of the Copyright Amendment in 2012 was to ensure that authors get their well deserved consideration. The focus was primarily on authors, who create works for feature films. Other authors, unfortunately, received little or no attention. After making sure that producers do not take away ownership rights by signing 'work for hire' engagements, the amendment made changes to provisions with respect to assignment in Section 18. The first provision in Section 18, the subject of…

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Ideas, Concepts, Scripts & Stories – Protecting Ideas in the Entertainment Industry Part II

This post was first published on June 25th, 2014.   We reviewed the existing scenario in the entertainment industry with respect to the protection of ideas, in my previous post - how to protect ideas. Before we move on to discuss the tool that can be used to protect original ideas/concepts that are not expressed in a tangible form, let us take a look at the practices followed in the entertainment industry by both the generator and the receiver of ideas.…

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This Image depicts the word art of Petrucci's Music Company. This Image is relevant as the article deals with the Music Licensing. Click on this Image for more Information.

An Overview of Music Licensing – Part 1

  Music licensing means transfer of exclusive or non – exclusive rights to use a piece of music which sometimes may be a complete song, a snippet of a song or an entire album or an entire repertoire for a set period of time, for a fee. Music licensing deals can take several forms, but generally all deals dictate the presence of a licensing fee, an expiration date of the licensing agreement, and terms specifying where and how the licensee can use…

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