Copyright Registration

Copyright exists automatically the moment an original work is created — a piece of software, a manual, a design, a photograph, a piece of music — and registration is optional. What registration gives you is evidence: a certificate from the Copyright Office is prima facie proof of ownership and the date, which is exactly what is missing when a dispute turns on who created something first and nobody kept dated records.

Who this is for

Ownership proof
Infringement protection
60-year validity
3-6 month registration

The process

What we actually do

1
We establish who actually owns it
An employee's work made in the course of employment belongs to the employer by default. A contractor's does not — it belongs to the contractor unless the contract assigns it. This is where most ownership disputes come from, and it is settled by the agreement rather than by the registration.
2
We classify the work correctly
Literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematograph film or sound recording. Software is registered as a literary work, filed with portions of the source code.
3
We file with the Copyright Office
Form XIV with the statement of particulars and copies of the work. Where the work includes an artistic element already used as a trade mark, a no-objection from the Trade Marks Registry is required.
4
We deal with the objection window
Applications are held for thirty days after filing during which anyone may object. Where an objection is received, a hearing follows and the matter is decided before registration.
5
We record assignments and licences
An assignment must be in writing and signed, and is more useful recorded. This is what makes a chain of title provable when an acquirer or a court asks.

Who this is for

Software companies wanting registered evidence of their source code
Agencies, publishers and content businesses whose product is the work itself
Designers registering artistic works, including logo artwork
Businesses licensing their material to others, where the licence is worth more with a certificate behind it
Anyone in a dispute about who created a work, or who commissioned it

How long it takes

Six to twelve months from filing to the certificate, of which the mandatory thirty-day objection window is the only fixed part. The copyright itself exists from creation and is not waiting on the certificate.

If you do nothing

You still own the copyright — that is automatic. What you do not have is proof. In a dispute the question is who created it and when, and the answer comes from whatever dated evidence exists; a certificate settles in one document what otherwise takes affidavits, version histories and testimony, and sometimes cannot be settled at all.

The law, in figures

Dates, thresholds and sections

Every figure below carries the provision it comes from, so it can be checked.
What	Figure	Source
Subsistence	Automatic on creation of an original work; registration is optional	Section 13, Copyright Act 1957
Term, literary and artistic works	Lifetime of the author plus 60 years	Section 22, Copyright Act 1957
Term, films and sound recordings	60 years from publication	Sections 26 and 27, Copyright Act 1957
Ownership of employee work	The employer, where made in the course of employment	Section 17(c), Copyright Act 1957
Objection window	30 days from filing	Rule 70(9), Copyright Rules 2013
Evidentiary value	The register is prima facie evidence of the particulars entered	Section 48, Copyright Act 1957

What usually goes wrong

Assuming a contractor's work belongs to you without a written assignment — it does not
Believing copyright does not exist until it is registered
Registering a logo as an artistic work and treating that as trade mark protection, which it is not
Failing to obtain the trade mark no-objection where the artistic work is used as a mark
Keeping no dated record of creation, which is the whole problem registration solves

What non-compliance costs

No penalty for not registering — the right exists regardless
Infringement is punishable with imprisonment and fine under section 63, Copyright Act 1957
Without registration, proving ownership and date falls entirely on your own records

These are statutory amounts, not our fees. What we charge depends on your situation and is quoted before any work starts.

Not to be confused with

These come up in the same conversation and are routinely treated as the same thing. They are not.

Trade mark

Copyright protects the work itself. A trade mark protects the use of a sign as a badge of origin for goods or services. Logo artwork can carry both, and they are enforced differently.

Patent

Copyright protects expression, not ideas or functionality. Software's code is copyright; a genuinely novel technical method behind it may be patentable, which is a different application entirely.

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