Do I have to file copyright for my e-commerce startup if registered

716 votes

Hi. You can get your online marketplace copyrighted. Since websites are dynamic in nature so every time a new copyright registration is required. Accordingly if your website does not change much it is advisable you can get it copyrighted. If it is dynamic than it is advised to get it copyrighted every three months. Please note this is with reference to design and other visible features of the webpage. If you intend to get your source code registered that can be done subject to your source code is unique and not in public domain. It appears that you have already got trademark registration for your company and website. Further, with respect to online marketplace you need certain other documents to protect your interests.

Advocate Ankit Chaturvedi LawRato

883 votes

Dear Sirs,

Since you have already registered your company name and website and the same is in use.

There is no requirement under Copyright Act to get your name, trade mark, logo/label registered separately.

Kind regards,

Shashi ojha

Advocate Shashi Pratap Ojha LawRato

975 votes

You cannot take copy right on the business idea you are working on. You can take copyright over your logo, prospectus, broucher or any design you have made like company's punchline etc.
But copyright on business i dea is not possible.

Advocate Deepak Thackur LawRato

739 votes

Kindly re-phrase your query. What exactly you want copyright protection for? Or do you mean trade mark protection? Trade Mark and Copyright are totally different protections. Trade Mark relates to your trading name/style whereas copyright may be claimed in artistic or literary work/representation. Generally, IPR protection are recommended for all start-ups. Process is simple and fee is not too high.

Advocate Rishi Raj Sharma LawRato

662 votes

First of all please note that protection for any of the Copyright protected works exist from the moment it is created. However, registration of Copyrights provides prima facie evidence as to ownership of the work.

Now referring to you question, please note that Registration of company name and website name doesn't give Copyright protection to the layout, features, or to content, of your website.

To take this one step further, filing a Copyright for your E-commerce website layout is an option which will give you broader protection against any-kind of infringement. Your website can be protected by different types of intellectual property (IP) rights in India, like:

1) E-commerce systems, search engines or other technical Internet tools can be protected by Patents;
2) Software, including the text-based HTML code used in websites, can be protected by Copyright;
3) Your website layout design can be protected by Copyright;
4) Creative website content, such as written material, photographs, graphics, music and videos, can be protected by Copyright;
5) Business names, logos can be protected as Trademark.

So website and their content is inherently copyrighted. Whether you decide to complete copyright registration for your website is your choice. If the content of your website is valuable to you, financially or otherwise, or if you feel you need to protect your website and its contents for legal reasons, then registering the copyright of your website is probably worthwhile.

Advocate Amit Mehta LawRato