Copyright is a legal right provided to the author of “original works of authorship,” including artistic, dramatic, literary, musical, and certain other intellectual works. The purpose of protecting the copyright of authorship is to guard against different forms of piracy adopted from time to time.
Which Works can be protected under copyright?
The purpose of Copyrights is to protect all “original works of authorship” against any act of piracy etc. Law of copyrights are enshrined under The Copyrights Ordinance, 1962 and includes the following works:
- Musical works
- Artistic works
- Cinematographic Works including motion pictures
- Architectural works
- Books
- Photographs
- Newspapers
- Engravings and sculptural works
- Lectures
- Sound Records
- All types of literary works
- musical works,
- dramatic works
- sound recordings and other audiovisual works
- Computer Softwares
Copyrights Duration
Requisite application for protection of works sought to be registered is to be filed with Intellectual Property Rights Organization, Pakistan and copyrights once obtained for any work, the period of copyright of computer software, literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work (other than a photograph) is the life of the author and 50 years thereafter. Whereas on the other hand, in the case of a photograph and cinematographic including motion pictures, copyright exists for 50 years from the commencement of the calendar year since the publication of the work.
Benefits of Copyrights
Copyrights protection is a legal right vested in the author and copyrights protection benefits the author in many ways including the following:
- Prevent against privacy
- Enables the author to file a claim in Court of law
- Benefits in form of economic rights and economic awards
- Control the mode of publication
- Professional rating in respective market works
Legal Remedies against Infringement
Law provides both civil and criminal remedies including lodging of First Information Report against any person who knowingly infringes or abets the infringement of the copyright in a work protected under the law.
Copyrights Registration Procedure in Pakistan
Copyrights are registered and protected under The Copyrights Ordinance, 1962 in Pakistan. For a purpose of registration of Copyrights following procedure is commonly adopted:
- Filing of Copyrights Application.
- Processing of relevant document
- Preliminary Examination by IPO Pakistan.
- Hearing for objections from Public at Large.
- Submission of material confirming authorship rights.
- Certificate on Copyrights.
Protect your Copyrights
If you are the author of any genius work and you are desirous to protect its copyrights, we at DRSLF provide assistance in applying and protecting your precious works against all sorts of piracies. Please place your queries and we shall instantly get back to you.