Intellectual Property: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

Copyrights are the easiest intellectual property to register. On the other hand, patents and trademarks necessitate expertise that may require the assistance of an intellectual property professional, especially patents. However, trademark registration is a viable option for some to tackle on their own.

• Types of copyright works which could be registered include: literary works, musical works and lyrics, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, sound recordings and other digital media, and architectural works.

• Works that may not be copyrighted include: works NOT fixed in a medium, facts, ideas, dates, names, short phrases, U.S. Government documents, and works that have entered into the public domain.

• Intellectual expressions are copyright protected as soon as the work is in a fixed medium, e.g. paper or digital. Copyright begins at the moment of creation and subsists for the life of the author plus 70 years.

Although you need not register your copyrighted works with the US Copyright Office, there are legal advantages to do so. Registration establishes a pubic record of copyright claim. Before a copyright holder may file an infringement suit in court, registration is necessary. It also allows the copyright owner to record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against importation of infringing copies, e.g. fake or counterfeit copies.

Start at the US Copyright Office website https://www.copyright.gov/:

• View the section entitled, "How to Register a Work."
• Registration establishes public record of copyright claim.
• Before an infringement suit may be filed, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
• Online catalog copyright entries are searchable from January 1978 to the present. Older dates may be searched via the Catalog of Copyright Entries published between 1870-1978.
• To register copyright, go to https://copyright.gov/registration/ for an online form.

The current copyright cost is listed, along with directions. There are different forms for various types of works, e.g. literary texts, sound recordings, etc. For example, literary text forms are used to register published or unpublished non-dramatic literary works, excluding periodicals or serial issues. Texts include a wide variety of works: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, textbooks, reference works, directories, catalogs, advertising copy, compilations of information, and computer programs.