Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

46. It is submitted on behalf of the Plaintiff that a Partnership firm cannot be the owner of the copyright. This submission cannot be accepted. A Partnership is a compendium of individuals and when a Partnership firm is the owner of the copyright, in fact, the Partners are the joint owners of the copyright and as such the 'joint authors' of the copyright in the film. Joint authorship is acknowledged in Section 2 (z) of the Copyright Act wherein 'work of joint authorship' is defined to mean a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of one author is not distinct from the contribution of other author or authors. When a Partnership firm makes a film and takes various steps including funding the film, the financial contribution of one Partner is not distinct from the contribution of the other Partners. Therefore, the Partners of a Partnership firm would be the joint authors and as such, the owners of the copyright. As submitted on behalf of Defendant Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, the concept that a Partnership firm owns intellectual property rights is not alien to the laws relating to intellectual property. If a Partnership firm has been using the trade mark, unless there is evidence to the contrary, it has to be prima facie presumed that it is the property of the firm. The provisions of Section 24 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, also recognizes registration of a trade mark in case of two persons who are Partners of a firm.

52. As per the wording of the sub-section, the author needs to be a citizen of India (and accordingly, a natural person) or may be domiciled in India which may be a company or a Partnership firm. A company for instance is deemed to be domiciled in the country of its incorporation, vide Technip Sa vs. Sms Holding (Pvt.) Ltd. and ors. 9 where the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that a company is domiciled where it is registered. 'Citizen of India' and 'domiciled in India' are two different concepts and these expressions are to be read disjunctively and accordingly, an author or an unpublished work may fall in any one of the two categories. With regard to a partnership firm, the explanation to Section 13 would apply which provides that in case of a work of joint authorship, the conditions conferring copyright specified in Section 13 (2) shall be satisfied by all the authors of the work. By necessary corollary, an author can be a natural person or a juristic person under the Copyright Act.