Copyright Registration Services

Copyright is an unregistered right that exists automatically when you create original work. It is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings. Copyright protection extends only to expressions, and not to ideas, procedures and methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. Copyright may or may not be available for a number of objects such as titles, slogans, or logos, depending on whether they contain sufficient authorship.

Copyright doesn’t protect ideas, but their independent expression. We can help you with all aspects of copyright protection and enforcement on works as diverse as publications and images, in traditional media. In fact there are lots of things we can do to protect your copyright and to help you understand copyright legislation so you keep out of trouble. From advice on using the copyright symbol (©) to stopping copyright infringement, we de-stress this complex legal field to give you peace of mind and protect your interests.

Copyright is a complex area and we provide a wide range of advice on copyright related matters.

• Commercialization: We have an experienced team that specializes in helping clients commercialize products they have protected by copyright.
• Ownership: We advise on the existence and ownership of copyright, particularly where there may be more than one author of a copyright work or where a work has been commissioned or arisen in the course of an employee’s employment. To give effect to ownership rights, we often prepare deeds of assignment of rights in copyright works.
• Enforcement: We specialize in copyright enforcement. Depending on our clients’ objectives, this may involve merely seeking recognition of authorship, requesting removal of copyright material from websites, requiring a license to use copyright material, sending cease and desist letters, or pursuing copyright infringement proceedings before the Courts.

Rights of Performers and Producers of Phonograms

Performer’s Rights are the special rights of a performer i.e. an actor, singer, musician, dancer, acrobat, juggler, conjurer, snake charmer, a person delivering a lecture, or any other person who makes a performance (i.e. a visual or acoustic presentation made live by the performer). The producer of a phonogram is a person who records the sounds of a performance or other sounds. The performers have the exclusive right to:

• Fix or prevent fixation8 of their unfixed performance;
• Reproduce the fixation of their performance;
• Broadcast the performance by wireless means;
• Communicate the live performance to the public.

The producers of phonograms, on the other hand, have the exclusive right to reproduce their fixation and rent such fixation. If any other person reproduces the recording or rents the recording, without the consent of the performer and during the continuance of the performer’s right, that act is an infringement of the performer’s rights. The rights of producers and performers last fifty years from the year in which fixation was made or the performance took place.

Broadcaster’s Rights

The Copyright Ordinance defines "broadcasting" as communication to the public of sound or images or both by means of radio-diffusion, including communication by telecast, by wire, or by both. Every broadcasting organization has special rights with respect to its broadcasts and these rights are known as broadcast reproduction rights. The broadcasting organization has the exclusive right to:

• re-broadcast the broadcast;
• fix their broadcasts; and
• copy fixations made of their broadcasts.

If any person does any of the aforementioned acts, without a license from the broadcasting organization and while the broadcaster’s rights are in effect, that act is an infringement of the broadcaster’s rights.

The broadcast reproduction right lasts for twenty-five years.

Term of Copyright

The copyright in a work does not last for perpetuity. In the case of original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (other than photographs), the term of copyright protection in Pakistan is the life of the author plus fifty years. The fifty-year period is counted from the year following the death of the author. In the case of films, sound recordings, photographs, posthumous publications, anonymous and pseudonymous publications, works of government and works of international organizations, the term is 50 years beginning on the calendar year next following the year in which the work is first published.

Author’s Special Rights

Even if the rights holder has relinquished or assigned the copyright in the work, he shall have the right to restrain or claim damages in respect of any distortion, mutilation or other modification of the said work. The rights holder may take action against any conduct prejudicial to his or her honor or reputation.