Copyright & Digital IP Landscape
Copyright applications grew 80.3% in five years, from 24,451 in FY 2020-21 to 44,095 in FY 2024-25. Registrations peaked at 38,002 in FY 2023-24 and fell to 26,767 in FY 2024-25, as a backlog of about 17,000 examined-but-undisposed cases built up.
The dataset covers applications, examination, registration and disposal, registrations by category, registration revenue and the Section 45(1) certificates issued through the Trade Marks Registry. Literary and dramatic works make up 65.1% of registrations, while computer software accounts for only 6.4% despite India’s USD 254 billion IT services sector. Registration revenue grew 46.6%, from Rs. 248.81 lakh to Rs. 364.76 lakh. Registrations dipped to 12,082 in FY 2022-23, which coincided with the IPAB abolition, but the report could not isolate the cause with confidence.
Published by: ASIA, State of Intellectual Property in India, Chapter 3.
Why it matters: India has been on the USTR Priority Watch List in every year of the period over streaming licensing and technological protection measures, and the Copyright Act has gaps on AI training and authorship.
What’s inside: Copyright filing and registration trends, category mix, revenue, USTR Special 301 context, collective management organisations and the legislative and policy pipeline, including the AI training and authorship questions raised in ANI v. OpenAI.
Years covered: FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25 (Copyright Registrations by category data: FY 2023-24).
Data sources CGPDTM Annual Reports, USTR Special 301 Reports, court decisions.
Things to keep in mind: Annual applications, registrations and disposals are different stages of the process and should not be read as a yearly clearance rate. The software figure points to under-use of formal copyright registration by the software industry, not to low software output.
