Indian Copyright Statistics, Ilayaraja’s sends legal notice to Smule, Copyright Office to publish application details, The Pirate Bay to be blocked and more is presented by the Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s Premier New Age IP Firm
COPYRIGHT QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Monitoring and taking down infringing digital content is the key to internet/digital licensing success.-Kalyan
INDIAN COPYRIGHT STATISTICS
There was an increase of 196 % in the total number of copyright filings compared to the last week. A total of 225 applications were filed for copyright registration during the last week. While most of the applications were filed for literary works only one application was filed for registering Sound recordings.
| Sr. No | Types of work | Number of Applications previous week | Number of Applications this week | Percentage change |
| 1 | Literary Works | 46 | 117 | An increase of 154% |
| 2 | Musical works | 3 | 4 | An increase of 33% |
| 3 | Artistic works | 13 | 58 | An increase of 346% |
| 4 | Cinematograph Films | 1 | 14 | An increase of1300% |
| 5 | Sound Recordings | 2 | 1 | A decrease of 50% |
| 6 | Software | 11 | 31 | An increase of 181% |
| Total | 76 | 225 | A total increase of 196 |
INDIAN COPYRIGHTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES
Ilaiyaraja’s goes after Smule after SP Balasubrahmanyam
After issuing the legal notice to singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, the music maestro Ilaiyaraja’s legal team is once again in news for issuing a legal notice to the Karaoke application Smule. It is learned that Ilaiyaraja’s team sent a Notice to Smule to remove his songs from its database. Ilaiyaraja’s team alleges that Smule has not taken permissions from him for using his compositions. “The app charges people Rs.1100, but there is no investment for him. See, we never go and stop fans who are really enjoying the content. We know every fan has rights, they’re supposed to enjoy the songs of Mr. Ilayaraja for the love they have for him. But somehow we want to restrict people who take huge money from the people and don’t take permission from the content owners. Every composer has the right to gain their content rights, but no one is doing except Ilayaraja.” said Raja’s copyright lawyer in his statement.
Copyright office to publish applications details
The Indian copyright office has decided to publish, the list of entries made in the Register, correction of every entry made in the Register and rectifications orders for all applications filed in the year 2016 on its website. The move is intended to enhance the transparency and speed of the copyright registration process in India.
BananaIP’s upcoming seminar on Building IP Framework
Recently, BananaIP has successfully organized a one-day seminar on patent law on 22nd September 2017 at ITC Gardenia, Bangalore. The event was attended by participants from various companies including Samsung, Triton, Peps, Eureka Forbes etc. The objective of the program was to enable participants to strategically create, develop or design its intangible assets with the objective of acquiring Intellectual property registrations.
On 6th October 2017, BananaIP is organizing another seminar entitled Building IP Framework for corporates. The seminar is aimed at helping companies build manage and commercialize valuable IP. Any person interested may register for the seminar at this link.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW NEWS
Dutch Court Orders internet Service providers to block The Pirate Bay
Dutch internet service providers Ziggo and Xs4all have been ordered by a local court to block access to the torrent site, The Pirate Bay. The current ruling overturns the 2014 ruling that there was no valid reason to block the site. After the 2014 order, the European Court of Justice has ruled that ISPs are obligated to block sites that are engaged in piracy. The current decision is in line with the precedent set by the European Court of Justice.
Google signs agreement to tackle YouTube piracy
Google has signed an agreement with ALPA, a French anti-piracy agency, to take steps to prevent piracy of French content. The deal will enable YouTube to give French Content Providers access to Content ID for the first time. YouTube will also provide training and financial support to creators to enable them to protect their work on YouTube.
LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING UPDATES
India gets its own kids franchise
‘Fatak-Patak’, an Indian kids franchise owned by Nihodo Media, an Indo-Japanese company is following the footsteps of international kids’ franchises such as Pokemon. The franchise is set to give Indian kids a complete experience with an animated television series as well as toys that will be based on the characters in the series. While the four-part television series will be aired on Disney-owned channel Hungama, Dream Theatre shall be managing the licensing and merchandising aspect.
Eros and Dharma sign a digital deal
Recently Eros International Plc, announced that its digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform ‘Eros Now’ has entered into a digital deal with Dharma Productions on a non-exclusive basis for all territories outside India. The deal includes Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Ok Jaanu along with other 11 catalogue films from the production house.
RKF -Jio original content deal
In line with the fad of producing ‘originals’, Siddharth Roy Kapur’s new venture Roy Kapur Film (RFK) entered into a digital deal with the telecom firm Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Kapur who was the former managing director of The Walt Disney Co. (India), stated RFK this year. The deal with include both exclusive short and long-form content as part of ‘Jio originals’.
BIP TIP of the week
Monitoring and taking down infringing content
Monitoring and taking down infringing digital content is the key to internet/digital licensing success. Entertainment companies must follow a well-planned digital monitoring and take down system in order to prevent the infringing use of their copyrighted content. Proactive enforcement of copyrights on the internet will go a long way in helping the entertainment companies maximize revenues from a license.
Author: BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys
Senior Partner, the entertainment law attorneys at BIP are among the well-known lawyers in the field. They work with clients such as Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Ananda Audio, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh, and Arka Media (Producer of Bahu Bali). BIP’s entertainment law team helps clients protect, manage and effectively license and merchandize their creative works such as films, music, brands and other content, to maximize financial returns.
The weekly copyright and entertainment law news initiative is a part of their pro bono work, and is aimed at spreading entertainment law awareness. You are free to share the news with appropriate attribution and backlink to the source.
If you have any questions, you may write to BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys – [email protected].
