An assignment of copyright passes only the rights, term and territory it names, and it leaves the author's royalty share and moral rights behind

An assignment of copyright under sections 18 and 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957 passes only what the written instrument identifies: the work, the rights, the term and the territory. Where it is silent, section 19 supplies five years and India, and a right the assignee does not exercise within one year lapses unless the instrument says otherwise. Two things stay with the author whatever the instrument says: an equal share of royalties for most uses of a literary or musical work in a cinematograph film, and for any use of one in a sound recording outside a film, which the 2012 provisos make non-waivable, and the moral rights in section 57. Disputes go to the Commercial Court under section 19A, a forum that the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 put in place of the Appellate Board.

What does an assignment pass, and in what form must it be made?

Section 18(1) lets the owner of copyright in an existing work, or the prospective owner in a future work, assign it to any person, wholly or partially, generally or subject to limitations, for the whole term or any part of it. An assignment of a future work takes effect when the work comes into existence. Under section 18(2) the assignee owns the rights assigned and the assignor owns the rights not assigned, so an assignment divides a bundle and the instrument decides where the line falls.

Section 19(1) makes an assignment invalid unless it is in writing signed by the assignor or the assignor's duly authorised agent. Section 19(2) requires it to identify the work and to specify the rights assigned and the duration and territorial extent of the assignment. Section 19(3) requires it to specify the royalty and any other consideration payable to the author or the author's legal heirs during the assignment, and makes it subject to revision, extension or termination on agreed terms. Under section 19(7), sub-sections (2) to (6) do not apply to assignments made before the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1994.

Section 17 makes the author the first owner and gives a person at whose instance a cinematograph film is made for valuable consideration, absent a contrary agreement, the first ownership of the film copyright. A closing proviso keeps the author's right in a work incorporated in a cinematograph work against clauses (b) and (c). Section 13(4) says the copyright in a film or sound recording does not affect the separate copyright in the work from which it is made. A film song thus has at least three strands, the musical work, any lyric, and the film or sound recording, and assigning one does not move the others.

What did the 2012 provisos add to section 18?

Act 27 of 2012 inserted three provisos into section 18(1), in force from 21 June 2012. The second proviso of the sub-section concerns media: no assignment applies to a medium or mode of exploitation that did not exist or was not in commercial use when the assignment was made, unless the assignment specifically refers to that medium or mode. A grant of "all media" does not reach a later medium.

The third proviso protects the author of a literary or musical work included in a cinematograph film, who shall not assign or waive the right to royalties shared equally with the assignee for use of the work in any form other than its communication to the public along with the film in a cinema hall. The exceptions are assignment to legal heirs or to a copyright society for collection and distribution, and any agreement to the contrary is void. The fourth proviso protects, for any utilisation, the author of a literary or musical work in a sound recording outside a film, against a contrary assignment, with a collecting society as the exception.

Sections 19(9) and 19(10), inserted by the same Act, state the same position from the side of section 19. Section 19(8) voids an assignment contrary to rights already assigned to a copyright society of which the author is a member.

What does section 19 supply when the instrument is silent?

Three defaults apply. If the period is not stated, section 19(5) deems it five years from the date of assignment. If the territory is not specified, section 19(6) presumes India. And under section 19(4), where the assignee does not exercise a right within one year from the date of assignment, the assignment in respect of that right is deemed to have lapsed after the year, unless the assignment provides otherwise.

The lapse is per right: an unreleased soundtrack does not undo a cinema grant. The words "unless otherwise specified in the assignment" let the parties write a longer period or a different trigger.

Who decides a dispute about an assignment?

Section 19A(1) lets the assignor complain that the assignee has failed to make sufficient exercise of the rights assigned, where the failure is not attributable to the assignor, and the forum may revoke the assignment after inquiry. Section 19A(2) covers any dispute about an assignment: on a complaint from the aggrieved party the forum may pass such order as it deems fit, including one for recovery of royalty payable. Three provisos qualify it: revocation requires terms harsh to an assignor who is also the author, interim orders on implementing the terms are allowed, and no revocation may be ordered within five years of the assignment. Section 19A(3) aims at a final order within six months, with reasons recorded for any delay.

The forum was the Appellate Board until 2021. Section 10 of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 (Act 33 of 2021), deemed in force from 4 April 2021, substituted "Commercial Court" for "Appellate Board" in section 19A and several other sections of the Copyright Act, omitted sections 11 and 12, and inserted clause (fa) in section 2, defining a Commercial Court as one constituted under section 3, or the Commercial Division of a High Court constituted under section 4, of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2026 (Act 17 of 2026), in force from 25 August 2026 by notification S.O. 4713(E), repealed the 2021 Act in section 24(1) and applies section 6 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 to that repeal in section 24(4). It governs the appointment and service of tribunal members. Its text, including the Second Schedule of consequential amendments, does not mention the Copyright Act, so the words substituted in 2021 remain.

Section 2(1)(c) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 makes a dispute arising out of licensing agreements, in clause (ix), or out of copyright, in clause (xvii), a commercial dispute, with a specified value of not less than three lakh rupees under section 2(1)(i).

What stays with the author after an assignment?

Section 57(1) gives the author two rights "independently of the author's copyright and even after the assignment either wholly or partially". The first is to claim authorship. The second is to restrain, or claim damages for, any distortion, mutilation, modification or other act in relation to the work that would be prejudicial to the author's honour or reputation. An explanation says that failure to display a work, or to display it to the author's satisfaction, is not an infringement of these rights.

Under section 57(2) the author's legal representatives may exercise them. The royalty share is an economic claim on the assignee's receipts, and section 57 is a personal claim about how the work is treated.

What does this look like for a song?

An illustration. The parties, dates and sums are hypothetical. A composer, Asha, assigns the musical work in a song to a film producer by a signed instrument dated 1 March 2027 for INR 10 lakh. It identifies the song and lists three rights: inclusion in the film, exhibition of the film in cinema halls, and the making and release of a sound recording. It names no term, no territory and no royalty.

Defaults that fill the gaps
  Term, section 19(5): five years, to 1 March 2032
  Territory, section 19(6): India only
  Rights not listed stay with Asha, as does any medium not in
  commercial use on 1 March 2027 and not specifically named

Unexercised right, section 19(4)
  Producer releases no sound recording by 1 March 2028
  That right is deemed lapsed after 1 March 2028
  The film and cinema rights continue to 1 March 2032

Royalties that cannot be waived
  Producer licenses the film to a broadcaster for INR 12 lakh
  Broadcast is use other than with the film in a cinema hall
  Equal share of the royalty for the song: if all INR 12 lakh
  were that royalty, INR 6 lakh to each
  The INR 10 lakh lump sum does not discharge the equal share,
  and an agreement that it does would be void

Moral rights that survive
  Producer releases a remix that omits Asha's credit
  Adaptation was not assigned, so the remix also uses a right
  Asha kept
  Asha may claim authorship, and may restrain the remix or claim
  damages if it is prejudicial to her honour or reputation

Dispute before the Commercial Court
  Revocation for under-use, section 19A(1): the sub-section states
  no waiting period
  Revocation under section 19A(2): not within five years, so not
  before 2 March 2032, after the default term has ended
  An order for recovery of royalty is not so limited

The lump sum buys the three listed rights for India and five years, less any right left unexercised for a year, and the royalty share and the section 57 rights stay with Asha throughout.

What remains unsettled?

Five points.

What the equal share is measured on. Sections 18(1) and 19(9) speak of an equal share but do not say whether the base is gross receipts, receipts net of cost, or the assignee's own licence income.

Whether the five-year bar reaches a complaint for under-use. The bar is a proviso to section 19A(2) and is worded "under this sub-section", while revocation for insufficient exercise is in section 19A(1). The Act also does not say whether a right that has lapsed under section 19(4) needs a declaration before the assignor may license it afresh.

What follows from an assignment that names no royalty. Section 19(3) says the assignment "shall also specify" the royalty and other consideration but, unlike sub-sections (5) and (6), supplies no default, and section 19(1) ties invalidity only to writing and signature.

Whether a clause waiving moral rights has any effect. The Act bars waiver expressly for the royalty share but is silent on waiver of section 57 rights.

Whether a complaint under section 19A must meet the specified value in the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, and which Commercial Court hears it. Section 2(fa) of the Copyright Act names both a Commercial Court and a Commercial Division without allocating complaints.