Assignment, transmission, relinquishment, licences and copyright societies - Intellectual Property Rights II

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1. Assignment: section 18
2. Mode of assignment: section 19
3. Transmission and relinquishment
4. Voluntary licences: sections 30 and 30A
5. Termination of licences
6. Compulsory and statutory licences
7. Copyright societies: sections 33 to 36A
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

Assignment transfers ownership; a licence only permits. After an assignment the assignee is treated as owner of the rights assigned (section 18(2)) and can sue in his own name. A licensee only has permission to do what would otherwise infringe. Both must be in writing, and section 30A applies the formal rules of section 19 to licences too.

1. Assignment: section 18

The owner of copyright in an existing work, or the prospective owner in a future work, may assign it to any person wholly or partially, generally or subject to limitations, and for the whole term or any part of it. So an author can assign only the film rights in a novel, only for Kannada, only for ten years. An assignment of a future work takes effect only when the work comes into existence.

The 2012 amendment added three provisos:

an assignment does not extend to a medium or mode of exploitation that did not exist or was not in commercial use when it was made, unless it specifically says so;
the author of a literary or musical work included in a film cannot assign or waive the right to an equal share of royalties for use of the work other than with the film in a cinema hall, except to legal heirs or a copyright society;
the same applies to such a work included in a sound recording that is not part of a film, for any use.

2. Mode of assignment: section 19

(1) It must be in writing, signed by the assignor or his authorised agent.
(2), (3) It must identify the work, specify the rights, duration and territory, and state the royalty and other consideration payable to the author or his heirs.
(4) If the assignee does not exercise the rights within one year, the assignment of those rights is deemed to lapse, unless the deed says otherwise.
(5) If no period is stated, it is deemed to be five years.
(6) If no territory is stated, it is presumed to extend to India.
(8) to (10) An assignment contrary to rights already assigned to a copyright society of which the author is a member is void; and assignment for a film or sound recording does not affect the author’s right to an equal share of royalties for other uses.

Disputes (section 19A). If the assignee fails to make sufficient use of the rights, or any dispute arises, the assignor may complain, and the forum may revoke the assignment or order payment of royalty. Where the assignor is the author, revocation requires that the terms are harsh to him, and no revocation may be made within five years of the assignment. The forum was the Copyright Board, then the IPAB, and since 2021 is the Commercial Court.

3. Transmission and relinquishment

Transmission by will (section 20). A bequest of the manuscript of an unpublished literary, dramatic or musical work, or of an unpublished artistic work, carries the copyright too unless the will shows a contrary intention. Otherwise copyright passes as movable property under the ordinary law of succession.
Relinquishment (section 21). The author may relinquish all or any of the rights by notice in the prescribed form to the Registrar of Copyrights or by public notice. The Registrar publishes it in the Official Gazette and posts it on the Copyright Office’s website for at least three years. Rights cease from the date of notice, but rights already granted to others are unaffected.

4. Voluntary licences: sections 30 and 30A

The owner or prospective owner may grant any interest in the right by licence in writing signed by him or his authorised agent (section 30). A licence of a future work takes effect when the work comes into existence, and passes to the licensee’s legal representatives if he dies before that. By section 30A, section 19 applies with necessary changes: the licence must specify the rights, duration, territory and royalty, and the one-year lapse, five-year default term and India-only presumption all apply.

5. Termination of licences

January 2026 set this as a 6-mark note. A licence comes to an end:

on expiry of the period stated, or of five years where none is stated (sections 30A and 19(5));
by lapse if the licensee does not exercise the rights within one year, unless the licence provides otherwise (sections 30A and 19(4));
according to its own terms, for example on breach, by notice or on non-payment of royalty, since section 19(3) makes the arrangement subject to termination on mutually agreed terms;
when the copyright itself expires; and
for licences granted under the Act to translate or reproduce works, under section 32B: if the owner later publishes a translation or edition in the same language, substantially the same in content, at a price reasonably related to normal Indian prices, the licence terminates three months after notice to the licensee, though copies already made may be sold until exhausted.

6. Compulsory and statutory licences

Works withheld from the public (section 31). If the owner of a work already published or performed refuses to republish it or allow its performance, or refuses to allow its broadcast on reasonable terms, the Commercial Court may, if the refusal is unreasonable, direct the Registrar to grant a licence on payment of compensation.
Unpublished and orphan works (section 31A) where the author is dead, unknown or untraceable.
For persons with disabilities (section 31B), for those working on a profit basis; non-profit conversion into accessible formats is already exempt under section 52(1)(zb).
Cover versions (section 31C): a statutory licence to record a new version of a song, not earlier than five calendar years after the year of the first recording, on prior notice and advance royalty at the rate fixed, in the same medium, and labelled as a cover version.
Broadcasting (section 31D): a statutory licence for broadcasters of published literary and musical works and sound recordings, on notice and payment of royalty at rates fixed separately for radio and television.
Translations and reproductions (sections 32 and 32A), drawn from the Berne Appendix for developing countries.

In Entertainment Network (India) Ltd. v. Super Cassette Industries Ltd., 2008 INSC 708, (2008) 13 SCC 30, an FM radio operator sought a compulsory licence to broadcast Super Cassette’s sound recordings. The Supreme Court held that a compulsory licence under section 31 can be granted even where the owner has licensed the works to others, if its refusal to license the complainant on reasonable terms is itself unreasonable; copyright is not an absolute monopoly and must be balanced against the public interest in access. In Super Cassettes Industries Ltd. v. Music Broadcast Pvt. Ltd., 2012 INSC 200, (2012) 5 SCC 488, it held that an interim compulsory licence cannot be granted while the complaint is pending, since that would give final relief at the interim stage.

7. Copyright societies: sections 33 to 36A

A copyright society administers rights collectively: it grants licences, collects fees and distributes them among owners, so that thousands of users do not need to approach thousands of owners individually.

Registration (section 33). No one may carry on the business of issuing or granting licences in copyright works except through a registered society, though an owner can still license his own works individually. Licensing of works incorporated in films or sound recordings must be done only through a registered society. Application is made to the Registrar of Copyrights, and the Central Government registers the society. Ordinarily only one society is registered for each class of work.
Term (section 33(3A)). Registration is for five years, renewable, subject to continued collective control being shared with authors.
Cancellation and suspension (section 33(4), (5)). The Central Government may cancel registration if the society is managed against the interests of owners, or suspend it for up to a year and appoint an administrator.
Tariff scheme (section 33A). Each society publishes its tariff; an aggrieved person may appeal to the Commercial Court.
Administration and control (sections 34 and 35). The society acts under authorisation from owners, distributes fees after deducting its expenses, and is subject to the collective control of the authors and owners whose rights it administers, who receive information on its working.
Returns (section 36) to the Registrar of Copyrights.

Examples include the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) for lyricists, composers and music publishers, and the Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation for literary works. A society enforces the rights assigned or licensed to it by its members, and the Supreme Court’s ruling on where infringement suits may be filed arose in a suit brought by IPRS (IPRS v. Sanjay Dalia, discussed in the infringement note).

How this is examined

February 2025 set “Assignment of copyright” (6 marks): sections 18 and 19 with the 2012 provisos and section 19A. January 2026 set “termination of licence of copy right”: use section 5 above. June 2025 set “Copyright society”: section 7, with the five-year registration and the one-society-per-class rule. A 10-mark question on licences should cover sections 30, 30A and 31 to 32B, with Entertainment Network.