Copyright Ordinance, 1962 — section 14

14. Assignment of copyright..—(1) The owner of the copyright in an existing work or the prospective owner of the copyright in a future work may assign to any person the copyright either wholly or partially and either generally or subject to limitations and either for the whole term of the copyright or any part thereof: Provided that, in the case of the assignment of copyright in any future work, the assignment shall take effect only when the work comes into existence: Provided further that, where the owner of the copyright in a work is the author of the work, no assignment of the copyright in the work or of any interest in such copyright shall be made, or if made shall be effective (except where the assignment is made in favour of Government or an educational, charitable, religious or non-profit institution) for a period of more than ten years beginning from the calendar year next following the year in which the assignment is made ; if an assignment of the copyright in a work is made in contravention of this proviso, the copyright in the work shall, on the expiry of the period specified in this proviso, revert to the author (who may re-assign the copyright in the work subject to the provisions herein contained), or if the author be dead to his representatives in interest 1[:] 1 [Provided further that the copyright in an unpublished work assigned by its author to any person or organization for the specific purpose of its publication shall revert to the author if such work is not published within a period of three years from the date of its assignment.]

(2)Where the assignee of a copyright becomes entitled to any right comprised in the copyright, the assignee as respects the rights so assigned, and the assignor as respects the rights not assigned, shall be treated for the purposes of this Ordinance as the owner of copyright and the provisions of this Ordinance shall have effect accordingly. 1 [(2A) If the owner of a copyright, or the publisher to whom such right has been assigned, considers any of the terms of the assignment to be likely to affect his interests adversely, he may within one year of such assignment apply to the Board to consider such term and the Board may, after hearing both the parties, pass such order as it may deem fit; and the order of the Board shall be binding on both the parties.]

(3)In this section, the expression “assignee” as respects the assignment of the copyright in any future work includes the legal representatives of the assignee, if the assignee dies before the work comes into existence.