Online Copyright Registration – Register Your Copyright

Copyright is a personal property right conveyed to authors as a form of protection for their “original works of authorship,” that are “fixed in a tangible form of expression.”

Works eligible for protection include literary works, visual arts, sound recordings, performing arts, motion pictures, audio-visual works, and other tangible creative works, whether published or unpublished.

Copyrights & Trademarks: What’s the Difference?

If you want to protect works such as literature, music, arts, and other tangible creative work, then a copyright can probably help you. You cannot copyright a word.
If you need to protect a name, title, slogan, or short phrase, that is being used to identify the source of a product or service; then you may be best served by a trademark registration.
Sometimes both a trademark and a copyright may be best, such as a creative logo. Copyrights and trademarks protect different aspects of the same design.

How a Copyright Protects Your Work

Exclusive protections are afforded to copyright registrants including the right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies for public sale, transfer ownership, rent, lease, lend, perform the work publicly, display the work publicly, and right of attribution and integrity.

Strengthen your rights to your work

• Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
• Helps solidify and prove ownership.
• Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
• If made before or within five years of publication, registration will establish the validity of the copyright and the facts stated in the certificate.
• Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.
• Most importantly, statutory damages and attorney’s fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions for registrations made within three months after publication of the work or before an infringement of the work. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright holder.

The Law 4 Small Business service, filing fee is $650 + the US Copyright Office filing fee (of $45 — Assumes single application, single author, same claimant, one work, not for hire).

Additional assistance in the form of a 30-minute Copyright Attorney Consultation is available for $100.