Section 19 Copyright Act: Mode of assignment

Section 19: Mode of assignment

¹[(1)] No assignment of the copyright in any work shall be valid unless it is in writing signed by the assignor or by his duly authorised agent.

²[(2) The assignment of copyright in any work shall identify such work, and shall specify the rights assigned and the duration and territorial extent of such assignment.

(3) The assignment of copyright in any work shall also specify the amount of ³[royalty and any other consideration payable], to the author or his legal heirs during the currency of the assignment and the assignment shall be subject to revision, extension or termination on terms mutually agreed upon by the parties.

(4) Where the assignee does not exercise the rights assigned to him under any of the other sub-sections of this section within period of one year from the date of assignment, the assignment in respect of such right shall be deemed to have lapsed after the expiry of the said period unless otherwise specified in the assignment.

(5) If the period of assignment is not stated, it shall be deemed to be five years from the date of assignment.

(6) If the territorial extent of assignment of the rights is not specified, it shall be presumed to extend within India.

(7) Nothing in sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) or sub-section (4) or sub-section (5) or sub-section (6) shall be applicable to assignments made before the coming into force of the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1994].

⁴[(8) The assignment of copyright in any work contrary to the terms and conditions of the rights already assigned to a copyright society in which the author of the work is a member shall be void.

(9) No assignment of copyright in any work to make a cinematograph film shall affect the right of the author of the work to claim an equal share of royalties and consideration payable in case of utilisation of the work in any form other than for the communication to the public of the work, along with the cinematograph film in a cinema hall.

(10) No assignment of the copyright in any work to make a sound recording which does not form part of any cinematograph film shall affect the right of the author of the work to claim an equal share of royalties and consideration payable for any utilisation of such work in any form.]

Footnotes in the official text

1.S.19 re-numbered as sub-section (1) thereof by Act 23 of 1983, s. 9 (w.e.f. 9-8-1984).
2.Subs. by Act 38 of 1994, s. 8, for sub-section (2) (w.e.f. 10-5-1995).
3.Subs. by Act 27 of 2012, s. 9, for “royalty payable, if any” (w.e.f. 21-6-2012).
4.Ins. by s. 9, ibid. (w.e.f. 21-6-2012).

Questions on this section

2 questions in 2 of our papers cite Section 19. Try these from the free papers:

1. Consider the following statements about assignment of copyright under Section 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957: 1. An assignment is valid only if it is in writing signed by the assignor or by his duly authorised agent. 2. If the period of assignment is not stated, it is deemed to be five years from the date of assignment. 3. If the territorial extent of the assignment is not specified, it is presumed to extend to the whole world. 4. If the assignee does not exercise the assigned rights within one year from the date of assignment, the assignment of those rights is deemed to have lapsed, unless the assignment specifies otherwise. Which of the statements given above are correct?
2. Assertion (A): An assignment of copyright made in 2014 which does not refer to a particular mode of exploitation does not, by itself, extend to a mode of exploitation that was not in commercial use when the assignment was made. Reason (R): Under Section 19(1) of the Copyright Act, 1957, no assignment of copyright is valid unless it is in writing signed by the assignor or by his duly authorised agent.