May 19, 2023

IPR and Music Videos

This article is written by Ms. Vedika V. Kamalu, a 1st year B.A.LLB. student from Manikchand Pahade Law College, Aurangabad.

Introduction

IPR (Intellectual Property rights) refers to the legal rights of the creators and owners that they have on their creations. Copyright, patents, trademarks, and industrial designs are a part of intellectual property rights. The aim of the Intellectual property rights is protection of the original works of the owners and creators of literary, artistic, musical, and other creative works with the inclusion of designs, inventions, and symbols. Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which declares that “Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author,” also mentions intellectual property rights.

Copyrights

Copyrights gives the owner the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their original literary, musical, or artistic works to protect it from getting stolen by others and prevents its copying and unauthorised publication. Copyright protects two rights of the author, Economic rights, and Moral rights. Economic rights protect the owner’s right to benefit from the profit made by the use of their works by others. For example, the right to prohibit reproduction and translation of their works in various forms, etc. Moral rights are the rights of the author to oppose the changes to his works and claim its ownership.

The Copyright Act, 1957 is a thorough legislation that deals with copyrights in India. Various aspects in relation to copyright regime in India are regulated in this act. It provides for different categories that are protected under the copyright protection act. Section 51 of this act provides for ‘When copyright infringed’. Copyright is said to be infringed when:

  1. if a person does something over which the copyright owner has an exclusive right, or allows the use of a place for profit to transmit the work to the public, if such transmission infringes the copyright of the work without a license or violates the terms of the license.
  2. If any person sells or leases, sells or leases or exhibits or offers for sale or leases or distributes for business or to such an extent as to injure the owner of copyright, or publicly displays or brings into India infringing copies of the work.

It is also important note that the Copyright act provides for both civil and criminal remedies against the infringement of copyright.

Section 52 of the act enlist the acts that are not considered as an infringement of copyright which include private use for research, reporting of current events, criticism or review, etc. The Copyright Act, 1957 also provides for the registration of copyright and that it shall be the admissible prima facie evidence in all courts in section 48 of the act. 

Trademarks

Trademarks are names, words, symbols, or designs that are used to distinguish and identify goods and services of one enterprise form those of other enterprises. Section 2(zb) of the Trademarks Act, 1999 defines “trademark” as a mark capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of others and may include shape of goods, their packaging and combination of colours. Therefore, distinctiveness is the authenticity stamp of trademark. Trademark has 45 classes of which 34 are products and 11 are services. The exclusive rights to use the registered trademark lie with the owner.

The purposes of a trademark are, to identify product and its source, reflect goodwill of a business, assure the customer about the quality of the product, advertise the product, establish a dedicated consumer base and provide legal protection.

In India to provide the registration and the protection of trademarks for goods and services with the intention to prevent the use of fraudulent marks the Trademarks Act, 1999 was enacted. It provides for the registration, certification, assignment, and use of trademarks as well as the infringement and legal remedies thereof, etc. Section 29 of the Trademarks Act states common forms of trademark infringement. The use of similar or already registered trademark, unauthorised use of trademark are conditions of infringement of trademark According to the Trademarks Act a trademark is registered for 10 years but it can be renewed time to time and can be used for an indefinite time.

Patents

Patents protect inventions, such as processes, design and machines or new technology, by giving exclusive rights to manufacture and sell the invention for a particular period of time to the patent owner.  Patent is granted to inventions that have industrial and commercial value. It is the exclusive right to manufacture the article with invented process for a limited period of time which is usually 20 years from the application filing date in exchange for the invention’s disclosure as provided in the Patents Act, 1970. A patent can be sold by the owner or the owner can grant licence to others to exploit it.

The patents can only be patented if the procedure given in Patents Act, 1970 is infringed. Right from the filing of application to the grant of a patent The Patents Act, 1970 provides for the detailed procedure to obtain a patent. Section 3 of this act lists the non-patentable inventions for which patents cannot be granted. Section 4, States that the inventions related to atomic energy are non-patentable.

Violating the rights of any patent holder is patent infringement, such as copying your invention in colour or taking essential features of your invention. Sections 47 and 107-A of the Patents Act provide for actions that cannot be treated as patent infringement. For example, the importation of any machinery or other articles by or on behalf of the Government or the manufacture or use of a patented process by or on behalf of the Government is not an infringement of a patent. The remedies in case of infringement involves, Injunction, Damages, destruction of infringing goods, certificate of validity.

Industrial design

Legally, industrial design is a decorative part of an object. Industrial design can consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape of an object, or two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines, or colour. An industrial design is purely aesthetic, non-functional, and has no utility. It is necessary to provide legal protection to the creative originality of an industrial design to prevent others from copying it. The owner of the registered industrial designs has the right to prevent the manufacturing and selling articles which are a copy of the protected design. The products like Household goods, handicraft items, textiles, jewellery, etc. come under industrial design.

In India for the protection and promotion of these original designs by granting the timebound monopoly right to use the registered industrial designs by the owner the Designs Act, 2000 has been enacted. This Act contains provisions for the registration and copyright of the design, the conditions for infringement of the registered designs, etc.

IPR in relation to music videos

Intellectual property rights related to music videos are a set of legal rights that protect the creators of music videos against unauthorized use, reproduction, and distribution of their works. These rights are designed to encourage and reward creativity and innovation in the music industry.

The main types of intellectual property rights applicable to music videos include copyright, trademarks, and performance rights. Copyright law protects the expression of ideas in music videos, including the video itself, music, and lyrics. In other words, copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute and execute music videos. In the case of Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films the court ruled that sampling three note sequences from a song without permission constitutes copyright infringement. This case highlights the importance of obtaining proper permissions and licenses to use copyrighted material in music videos. This is how the Copyrights act protect the owner’s original work.

 The names of the artists or band, the name of the song, or any logos or symbols to identify the artist and other branding elements are protected by Trademarks law. The case of Tips Industries Ltd. v. Wynk Music Ltd could be taken as an example of trademark infringement, in this case Tips Industries sued Wynk Music for trademark infringement, claiming that the use of the word “Tip” in the service’s name was confusingly similar to the “Tips” brand. The court ruled that there was potential for confusion and that Wynk Music infringed Tips Industries’ trademark.

Performance rights protect the right of artists and musicians to perform their music publicly. This includes the right to perform music videos in public venues such as concerts and music festivals. The case of Super Cassettes Industries Ltd. v. Myspace Inc. is an example of performance rights infringement, in which, Super Cassettes Industries Ltd. (T series), Myspace Inc., which hosted the user-generated videos containing copyrighted music without obtaining the appropriate license and paying royalties. A court ruled that Myspace Inc. must remove infringing content from its platform and pay T Series compensation  for its use of its music.

Conclusion

It is important for artists, musicians, and music video creators to understand intellectual property rights and take steps to protect their work. This may include registering copyrights and trademarks, licensing music videos for use in films, television shows and other media, and enforcing legal action where it is deemed appropriate.

Case laws and References:

  1. Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films (2004)
  2. Tips Industries Ltd. v. Wynk Music Ltd. (2019)
  3. Super Cassettes Industries Ltd. v. Myspace Inc. (2011)
  4. https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/
  5. https://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/
  6. https://www.wipo.int/patents/en/
  7. https://www.wipo.int/trademarks/en/
  8. https://www.wipo.int/designs/en/
  9. https://blog.ipleaders.in/all-about-intellectual-property-rights-ipr/
  10. https://corpbiz.io/copyright-for-public-performance-right-public-performance-license#:~:text=Performing%20right%20is%20the%20permission,is%20called%20Public%20Performance%20Rights.

Aishwarya Says:

Law students often face problems, which they cannot share with their friends and families. We have started a column on our website Student’s Corner. In this column we are talking to several law students about the challenges that they face. Students who are interested in participating in the same, can fill this Google Form.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE SAME, DO LET ME KNOW.

The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.

If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems to aishwarya@aishwaryasandeep.com

Join our  Whatsapp Group for latest Job Opening

Related articles