Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Carolyn,

Copyright attached to your photos the moment you took them. HOWEVER, and this is a HUGE caveat, if you did not register the copyright with the US Copyright Office, the court will throw your case out. This is due to the fact that the federal courts are overworked as it is and a case where the IP owner didn't even bother to register the work ... well, if the owner doesn't care enough to take this one small step (small in the case of copyright; other IP can be difficult indeed to register), why should the court?

You can register the copyright easily enough (go to www.copyright.gov and follow the instructions) and cheaply enough ($35/registration if you do it online), and remedies will be available to you for infringement that happens AFTER registration (meaning, usually, after the date the Copyright Office accepts the materials sent to them, not the date on which you receive the certificate of registration).

Once registration occurs, you may be entitled to statutory remedies for each infringing act � those range from $750/infringing act to $30,000/infringing act, and the award may be trebled and reasonable attorneys' fees awarded if certain conditions exist.

Copyright attaches at the moment of creation so you are protected immediately, and yes, you must register the copyrights before you can go to court. However, the fact that you waited to register does NOT preclude you from recovering damages for copyright infringements prior to registration (registration is not a prerequisite for protection, it is only a prerequisite to a lawsuit). There are time limits, though, so you would do well to speak to a copyright litigation lawyer immediately who can advise you on how best to proceed against the people who used your work without permission.