Legal notes to copyright registration in Sri Lanka

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Copyright registration in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. Sri Lanka is a developing country, ranking 72nd on the Human Development Index. It is the highest-ranked South Asian nation in terms of development and has the second-highest per capita income in South Asia. Despite the current crisis of this country and its government, Sri Lanka still has many potentials to thrive in the coming decade. Therefore, now is the best time for copyright registration in this country. 

Copyright in Sri Lanka

Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.

The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.

Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Sri Lanka early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.

When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Sri Lanka will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.

Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Sri Lanka immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.

Copyright registration in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1959.

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.

As Sri Lanka is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Sri Lanka will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.

In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Sri Lanka is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.

Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.

When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.

Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.

If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time needed to resolve issues related to copyright, proving ownership of the original work.

If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.

Documents for copyright registration in Sri Lanka

To obtain copyright registration in Sri Lanka, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:

  • Declaration of copyright registration in Sri Lanka;
  • Two copies of copyrighted work;
  • Documents proving the right to apply;
  • Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
  • Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
  • Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
  • Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
  • Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).

The copyright law of Sri Lanka

The basic legal instrument governing copyright law in Sri Lanka is Part II (ss. 5–27) of the Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003 (Sinhala: 2003 අංක 36 දරන බුද්ධිමය දේපල පනත; Tamil: 2003ஆம் ஆண்டின் 36ஆம் இலக்க புலமைச்சொத்து பாதுகாப்பு சட்டம்)[1] replacing Part II (ss. 6–24) of the Code of Intellectual Property Act, No. 52 of 1979.

The economic and moral rights are protected during the lifetime of the author and for a further period of 70 years from the date of his death (p.m.a.); a work of applied art is protected for 25 years from the date of the making of the work (s. 13).

Related rights include the rights of performers (ss. 17, 19), the rights of producers of sound recordings (ss. 18, 19) and the rights of broadcasting organisations (s. 20), each of them having a duration of 50 years (limitations: s. 21).

You can see a list of Sri Lanka IP Firms here.

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