Copyright & Entertainment Law News

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Indian Copyright Statistics, IP related expertise lacking in India: Parrikar, Dr. Kalyan’s The Dravidian reviewed by Shalini (Book Reviews by Shalini), New South Wales government sued for royalties, Game of Thrones Leaks carried out by former Iranian Military Hacker, Amrita Pandey to head media distribution and OTT for Disney in SEA markets 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

“The problem with the Indian IP system is not expertise or scholarship, it is with prejudice and bias”- Dr. Kalyan C Kanakanala, renowned patent and trade mark attorney.

INDIAN COPYRIGHT STATISTICS

There was an increase of 20.28% in the total number of copyright filings compared to the last week. A total of 228 applications were filed for copyright registration during the last week. While most of the applications were filed for literary works no application was filed for registering Cinematographic films.

Sr. No Types of Work Number of Applications Previous Week Number of Applications this Week Percentage Change
1 Literary Works 147 173 16.25%
2 Musical Works 3 2 40%
3 Artistic Works 19 32 50.9%
4 Cinematograph Films 0 0 No change
5 Sound Recordings 3 1 100%
6 Software 14 18 25%
Total 186 228 20,28%

INDIAN COPYRIGHTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES

IP related expertise lacking in India: Parrikar

Goa Chief Minister and former Defense Minister Manohar Parrikkar on Thursday said that India is lacking expertise related to intellectual property. “I am sorry to say because even as a Defence Minister I had many times issues with IPs in various defense equipment. IP related manpower is absolutely lacking in India. It is slowly taking shape. The biggest damage it caused, is when IP regulations were not very strong in India, many of the foreign companies were reluctant to set up units here or bring in their product here because they were afraid that their IPwould be copied and they would lose huge revenue,” Parrikar said during a seminar on Intellectual Property in Panaji.

Dr. Kalyan’s The Dravidian reviewed by Shalini (Book Reviews by Shalini)

Dr. Kalyan’s latest legal thriller The Dravidian: Gods own tribe continues to receive positive reviews from readers. Recently, the blogger and reviewer, Ms. Shalini Gopal reviewed the book as a “perfect combination of the ancient with modern, that can be read in a single go in a couple of hours”. You may read the review here. You may get a copy of the novel here.

NTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW NEWS 

New South Wales government sued by copyright agency

The New South Wales government has been sued by the Copyright Agency, which is alleging that the government delayed royalty payments for an estimated 200 million photocopies made of newspapers, magazines, journal articles, and photographs. The copyright Agency represents content creators and administers various licenses, including the statutory license granted to state governments to copy and reproduce work for a fixed royalty.

Game of Thrones leaks carried out by former Iranian Military Hacker

Torrent Freak reported that Behzad Mersri, an Iranian national who was previously associated with the Iranian military is responsible for hacking HBO’s systems and leaking HBO’s confidential information including script and plot summaries of unaired episodes. HBO alleges that Mersri illegally obtained 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO’s service and demanded a ransom of USD 5.5 million for not leaking the information.

LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING NEWS

Amrita Pandey to head media distribution and OTT for Disney in SEA markets

Amrita Pandey, vice president-Studios, Disney, India has been given the responsibility of overseeing all digital and OTT partnerships, content licensing and broadcast network distribution across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asian (SEA) markets.

BANANAIP COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT TIP OF THE WEEK

IP awareness and Piracy

Creating awareness about IP enforcement measures among IP creators can go a long way in controlling piracy and infringement. Companies and inventors must consider organizing awareness programmes about acquiring and/or purchasing content/products from legal sources in order to reduce piracy and counterfeiting.

Author: BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys

Led by Sanjeeth Hegde, 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 merchandise 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.