How to Register Your Copyright
The purpose of registering your copyright is to enhance your legal rights to recover monetary damages in the event of infringement. Copyright law provides that:
- You can’t file a lawsuit for infringement unless your copyright is registered.
- If your copyright is registered more than three months after publication or is registered after an infringement occurs, you can collect actual damages but not attorney fees.
- If your copyright is registered within three months of publication or before the infringement occurs, you can collect more favorable statutory damages plus attorney fees.
Being unable to recover attorney’s fees could make it financially difficult to stop an infringer from exploiting your work. You should seriously consider registering your copyright if you expect it will have any commercial value.
Registration requirements are relatively simple. All you need to do is to:
- complete an application
- pay an application fee
- submit a copy of the work being registered (called a “deposit”).
Types of Applications
Electronic Application (eCO)
You can log-on to the U.S. Copyright Office website, and complete an on-line application to register your copyright in:
- Literary works (materials in writing)
- Visual arts works (art, photography, sculpture, architecture, etc.)
- Performing arts works (films, videos, dance, etc.)
- Sound recordings (all audio materials)
- Single serials (a single issue of a magazine, newspaper, newsletter or other regularly issued periodical)
The electronic application also permits you to electronically pay the reduced on-line application fee ($35 at the time of this writing), and to submit an electronic copy of your work if feasible.
If it’s not feasible to submit copies of your work electronically, you must mail them to the U.S. Copyright Office.
Fill-in Computer Form (CO)
For those who prefer not to make an electronic payment online, the convenient computer Form CO allows you to complete the form on your computer, then print it and mail it with your payment and a copy of your work.
Paper Application
For paper forms to register the types of works described above, you have to write to the U.S. Copyright Office to request them. Since you have a computer, there’s no reason to do that. Use either the eCO or CO forms.
Other types of copyright registrations, though, can only be processed using paper forms, such as:
- Form D-VH for registration of vessel hull designs
- Form MW for registration of mask works (3-dimensional patterns fixed on a computer chip)
- Form GATT for registration of works in which the U.S. copyright was restored under the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act
- Form RE for renewal of copyright claims
- Forms for group submissions, including
- Form GR/PPh/CON (published photographs)
- Form GR/CP (contributions to periodicals)
- Form SE/Group (serials)
The application fees for these special types of registration vary considerably. See the U.S. Copyright Office website for current fees.
Deposits
“Deposit” refers to one or more copies of your work that you send to the Copyright Office for their records.
Deposit requirements depend on whether your work is published or not. A published work is one that has been produced in multiple copies for distribution, or has been offered for distribution. In the case of works available only electronically, the work is published if it has been offered or made available for distribution. Anything that has not yet been prepared or offered for distribution is unpublished work.
For published works in printed form, you must mail two copies to the Copyright Office. For unpublished printable works, you can upload an electronic copy at the Copyright Office website, or mail one printed copy.
If your work is published in a tangible audio-visual format, you also have to deposit two copies. If it is unpublished just one copy needs to be mailed. Unpublished audio works can be submitted electronically if they are in one of the acceptable file formats.
Deposit requirements for work classified as visual arts (other than print and audio-visual media) depend on whether it is practical to send a copy of the actual work, or more convenient to send photographs of the work. When photographs are adequate in lieu of actual copies, they can be uploaded if they are in an acceptable electronic format.
For items similar to those listed below, photographs (or “ID material” as they call it) are preferred and sometimes required. Circular 40a describes these requirements in more detail.
- Sculptures and three-dimensional works of art
- Patterns affixed to textiles or three-dimensional objects (such as dishware)
- Works larger than 96″ in any dimension
- Unpublished paintings, drawings, illustrations
Refer to Fact Sheets FL-105 through FL-124 and Circulars 41 through 66 for specific deposit requirements for many classifications of creative works, including:
- Architectural works
- Cartoons and comic strips
- Games
- Multimedia
- Poetry
- Scripts, pantomimes, and choreography
- Computer Software
- Secure tests
- Automated databases
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