Intro: Copyrights are tricky to understand, yet they can be so important in the protection of your work. Too many people develop great materials and media thinking that they are copyrighted works but don’t really know how to protect them. Everything from the design of your website to the content you put on it could be copyrighted, even white papers that your company produces can be copyrighted. A copyright is useless however, unless you know how to protect and register a copyright. This article aims to shed some light on the subject.

For writers, artists, musicians and software developers, there’s nothing worse than finding your original creation pirated and published by an unscrupulous party who claims it as their own. If you fail to apply for a copyright prior to the infringement, you essentially lose ownership and the right to sue the infringer.

Although a copyright is automatically created with a copyright notation, e.g., ‘Copyright your name, date’ on the original work, applying for a copyright registration makes your ownership airtight under the law.

To begin the copyright registration process, visit the U.S. Copyright web site. Carefully read through the various categories listed to determine to correct form to file and follow the filing instructions to the letter. Using the wrong form will result in a delay in your application. Even with a flawless application, your copyright registration will take several months from the date of application to actually obtaining your registration. Your work is nonetheless protected from the date you apply for a copyright so long as you mail the application and work via registered mail.

Copyrighted works are protected for your lifetime plus 70 years. Your heirs must renew the copyright to retain ownership of your work.

Be aware that you may obtain a copyright for as many as 30 individual works in a single application. Although the filing fee is nominal, considering the advantages gained by applying for a copyright, you are well advised to copyright additional works, such as a poem or short story previously unregistered along with your current main work, such as a book. However, applying for a copyright for multiple works requires that each individual work pertains to the same category. For example, a musician can register multiple original compositions in one registration, but cannot register a mix of songs and multimedia creations in a single application.

Many artists suffer infringement without legal recourse simply because they cannot afford the filing fee at the time of creation. There have been cases where Federal protection has been granted through an alternative process. Make a copy of your work and mail it via registered U.S. mail to yourself. When you receive the postmarked work, leave it sealed and retain in a safe location. If you do have to sue for infringement, the unopened registered mail may be acceptable as proof of your ownership. This is not failsafe, so consult a copyright attorney to determine the degree of protection this method affords you. In any case, as soon as you can scare up the filing fee, apply for a copyright! This protection is well worth the fee.

Conclusion: It is important to know how far a copyright takes you. Sometimes a copyright is not enough, and you need to actually trademark a name, word, or phrase. Stay tuned for future posts that discuss trademarking and how to file a trademark.

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Tags: copyright, infingement, protection, registration, trademark, work