Rs. 42 lakh copyright deal
Background
Software in India is protected primarily by copyright. Code is a literary work and is protected from the moment it is written — which is precisely why so many student-built applications are handed over informally, with no record of who owns what and no basis on which to price the handover.
Mr Satyam Mishra, a student at Sigma University, had built an Android application in the customer feedback space. The question was never whether it was protectable. It was whether it could be turned into a transaction.
What we did
Ownership on record. Copyright registration is not mandatory in India, but a registration certificate is what makes ownership provable to a buyer's counsel. Without it, a purchaser is buying an assurance rather than an asset.
Valuation. IP BANK India assessed what the application was worth as an acquired asset, not as a student project.
The transfer. The copyright was assigned to a private enterprise under a documented assignment, with the consideration agreed at Rs. 42 lakh.
The outcome
Rs. 42 lakh, paid to a student for software he wrote.
Why it matters
Nothing about this case required a company, a funding round or a product launch. It required a student who owned his work on record and knew it could be sold. Most student software is given away for a line on a CV — not because it is worthless, but because no one told the author it was an asset.
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