Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period, this is where we at Intellectual Media Rights come in.
IMR And the Entertainment Industry
When it comes to the entertainment industry – intellectual media rights, specifically copyrights and trademarks, come into play. Copyrights can be filed for lyrics, music, dialogues, screenplays, and so on. However, it is important to understand where intellectual media rights in the entertainment industry come into play and where they do not.
IMR And the Entertainment Industry
Naming a film
A filmmaker has the right to register the name of the film before beginning the shooting, to prevent others from using the same title. However, copyright and trademark laws are not applicable for naming a film. The reason for this is simple. A copyright is meant to incentivize creativity since there is a lot of effort involved in the creative process. To seek copyright protection, a work needs to have a certain amount of “authorship”, like in the case of song lyrics. In the case of movie titles, the authorship is of the “minimum amount”, which is why it does not qualify for copyrights or trademarks.
Screenplay & Writing
The screenplay of the film is one of the most prominent things that is copyrightable within the realm of intellectual property rights in the entertainment industry. The story of the film and how it stands out amongst others can be gauged through the writing, screenplay, and the film’s detailed script which includes acting instructions as well as scene directions, locations, cinematography, and other film production processes. Filmmakers can file for copyrights of the film’s screenplay and script under copyright laws. This grants them exclusive rights over their creation. Film producers hire writers to write an original story and pay them while filing copyrights under their production banner. Alternatively, they can create films based on original books written by authors, by seeking the permission of the writers and paying a fee or a royalty
Music, Lyrics, and Background Score
Music, lyrics, and background score form the heart of a movie and therefore, come under the purview of intellectual media rights in the entertainment industry. An earlier practice allowed the filmmaker to pay a fee to the musicians and lyricists and copyright their creations under their production banners. However, since 2010’s Javed Akhtar vs Producer’s Guild case, lyricists and musicians can claim copyrights for their creations and continue to receive royalties, instead of handing over the copyrights to the film producer over and above the one-time payment received.