Benefits of Copyright Registration

 
 

When you plan a trip to Disneyland, what’s the first thing you do? You buy a ticket! This same principle applies to copyright law. Imagine that Disneyland is the courtroom. Before you are able to sue for copyright infringement, you need a copyright registration. A copyright registration is your ticket to court, just like your ticket to Disneyland, and you can’t enforce your rights in court without it. Additionally, if copyright registration is “timely”, you as the copyright owner are eligible for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement and attorney’s fees, which can often incentivize infringers to settle with you outside of court. That all being said, there are even more benefits to copyright registration than the ability to enforce your rights.

First and foremost, what is a copyright? Copyright is a form of legal protection for “original works of authorship”.1 Copyright protection exists automatically once an original work is “fixed in any tangible medium of expression” (e.g., when you record a song to a digital audio file, or capture a photograph on film).2 Put more simply, copyright protection exists once an original creation becomes something tangible and more than an idea.

So why should you register your copyright if copyright protection exists automatically? As previously stated, in addition to the ability to enforce your rights, there are numerous benefits to copyright registration that can save you time and money in the future.

  1. Ability to sue for infringement.
    Generally, in order to file a claim for copyright infringement, copyright registration must be granted or denied by the U.S. Copyright Office.3 Simply submitting an application is not enough.4 From the time you submit your application, registration processing can take several months, and it can take even longer if correspondence with a registration specialist is required.5 Even more, if needed, there are extra costs to expedite your application.6 To avoid delays and additional costs in enforcing your rights, and to maximize the monetary award available to you in the event of infringement, copyrights should be timely registered. Generally, timely registration means prior to infringement or within three months after first publication.7 Once registration occurs, a copyright owner may sue for infringement that occurred both before and after registration8, subject to the statute of limitations.9

  2. Eligibility for statutory damages and attorney's fees.
    3. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, an infringer is generally liable for either actual damages (plus profits) or statutory damages.10 The decision to pursue actual or statutory damages is the choice of the copyright owner, however, statutory damages are only available for individuals who have timely registered their copyright.11 Actual damages are those “suffered by [the copyright owner] . . . as a result of the infringement, and any profits of the infringer that are attributable to the infringement and are not taken into account in computing actual damages”.12 Actual damages can be difficult to calculate, so copyright owners may elect an award of statutory damages instead. Statutory damages for copyright infringement are damages determined by the court of up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) per infringement.13 If a copyright is timely registered, the court may also direct the infringing party to pay the copyright owner full costs in connection with the lawsuit and reasonable attorney’s fees.14

  3. Public notice of your copyright ownership.
    4. An immediate benefit of copyright registration is the creation of a public record that puts the world on notice of your copyright claim.15 This record, which contains key facts about your copyright, such as the type of work, author(s), copyright claimant(s), title of the work, date of creation, and whether the work is published or unpublished, is available to the public in the Copyright Public Records Catalog.16 In addition to the public record of registration, a copyright owner will receive a certificate of registration from the Copyright Office upon approval and registration of his or her application.17 In the event that a copyright owner is sued for copyright infringement for that particular work, generally, a certificate of registration acts as evidence that the copyright owner does indeed own the copyright and that the facts in the certificate are correct.18

  4. Copy of your work with the Library of Congress.
    5. Generally, copyright applications require submission of a mandatory deposit of the “best edition” of a work.19 This copy is then shared with the Library of Congress, which keeps a copy of “every copyrightable work published in the United States for its collections or for exchange with or transfer to any other library.”20 So by registering your copyright, you are able to get your own private registration certificate, your work is listed in a public database, and your work is part of a collection with the largest library in the world!21

As you can see, there are many benefits to registering your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office.  In order to take full advantage of these benefits, copyright owners should timely register their works.  Let Music Law Pro help you register your music copyrights rather than trying to figure out the registration process alone.  Schedule an initial inquiry meeting today!

By: Alexandra Mayo, Esq.

DISCLAIMER: In addition to the disclaimer, for clarity: This information is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation; and please do not consider this information to be a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney licensed in the jurisdiction(s) relevant to your matter.

Sources:

  1.  17 U.S.C. §102(a).

  2.  Id.

  3.  See 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) (“...no civil action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title.”)

  4.  See Fourth Estate Pub. Ben. Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 139 S. Ct. 881, 892 (2019) (“...registration…has been made” within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. §411(a) not when an application for registration is filed, but when the Register has registered a copyright application after examining a properly filed application.”)

  5.  Registration Processing Times, U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, https://www.copyright.gov/registration/docs/processing-times-faqs.pdf (last visited Jan. 13, 2023).

  6.  Circular 10: Special Handling, U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ10.pdf (last visited Jan. 13, 2023).

  7.  See 17 U.S.C. §412 (“...no award of statutory damages or of attorney’s fees…shall be made for…any infringement of copyright commenced after first publication of the work and before the effective date of its registration, unless such registration is made within three months after the first publication of the work.”)

  8.  See Fourth Estate at 886-87 (“Upon registration of the copyright, however, a copyright owner can recover for infringement that occurred both before and after registration.”)

  9.  See 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) (“No civil action shall be maintained under the provisions of this title unless it is commenced within three years after the claim accrued.”)

  10.  17 U.S.C. §504(a).

  11.  17 U.S.C. §412.

  12.  17 U.S.C. § 504(b).

  13.  See 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2) (“...the court in its discretion may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of not more than $150,000.”)

  14.  See 17 U.S.C. § 505 (“...the court may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs.”)

  15.  See 17 U.S.C. §705(b) (“Such records and indexes…shall be open to public inspection.”)

  16.  See Public Catalog, U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, https://cocatalog.loc.gov/ (last visited Jan. 13, 2023).

  17.  See 17 U.S.C. § 410(a) (“...the Register shall register the claim and issue to the applicant a certificate of registration under the seal of the Copyright Office.”)

  18. See 17 U.S.C. § 410(c) (“In any judicial proceedings the certificate of a registration made before or within five years after first publication of the work shall constitute prima facie evidence of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.”)

  19.  17 U.S.C. § 407(a).

  20.  Circular 1: Copyright Basics, U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf (last visited Jan. 13, 2023).

  21.  See Fascinating Facts, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, https://www.loc.gov/about/fascinating-facts/ (last visited Jan. 13, 2023) (“The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world with more than 173 million items.”)

Alexandra Mayo