Reviewed case brief
Indian Performing Right Society v. Eastern Indian Motion Pictures Association
AIR 1977 SC 1443
Pre-2012 landmark: once a lyricist/composer assigned copyright to a film producer, all rights (including performing rights) vested with the producer; IPRS could not collect royalties on behalf of authors.
- Court
- Supreme Court of India
- Year
- 1977
- Subjects
- Intellectual Property Law
- Reviewed
- 2026-06-30
Rule established
Once copyright in musical/literary work assigned to film producer, author cannot independently claim performing rights through IPRS (reversed by 2012 Amendment)
Facts
Issues
Held
Ratio decidendi
How to use it in an exam
Editorial source
AIR Online
Educational summary only. Read the reported judgment or an authorised law report before relying on the case professionally.