I just looked back on our posts and noticed that we have been bringing to you many posts about the changes in the Trademark, Patent and Designs Office but haven’t been giving due attention to the Copyright Office (not that much has happened in a while)
To be perfectly honest, I always felt that the Indian Copyright office still lived in the medieval ages and was stuck there. When the Trademark and Patent Offices (designs as well) were scrambling to make full-use of technology I felt the Copyright Office was content to simply watch, as if it had nothing to do with it. Laid-back and happy! By no means does this imply that the office did not work. It did process applications and grant copyrights and communicated objections, if any. Whether it was into the techie rat-race with the other Offices was a question in my mind.
I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few changes though. From launching a brand new logo to a new web portal for filing applications, the Copyright office is strongly telling us “We are still in the game!” The web-portal promises to be quite tech-savvy with an e-filing facility for registration of copyrights! At present you can file an application online by filing in the forms and making the payment. Then you ought to print out the forms and supporting documents and post it to the Office.
Being used to the green notice that said the e-filing facility was under maintenance and that we ought to revert later for several years, this is a welcome change. Way to Go Copyright Office!
Source: Flickr
Raja Selvam
Founder & Managing Attorney, Selvam & Selvam | Practice areas include Trademarks, Patents, Domain names & Business law. Visiting faculty, Department of Journalism, Madras University where I teach copyrights & trademarks law. Passionate about entrepreneurship, start-ups, stocks, farming, technology and law.
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