Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Copyright Forms

The good news is that as soon as a work of authorship is written down or otherwise fixed in a tangible medium of expression in the USA, it's protected by copyright. To register the copyright, one sends in an application on a form provided by the Copyright Office, Library of Congres, Washington, DC 20559. One can phone 202-707-9100 and request the forms to be mailed out. But the newfangled way is to download the forms in Adobe PDF format from the Copyright Office Web Site, http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/ and print them out on one's own laser-quality printer. Note that the Adobe Acrobat Reader available for free to display and print the forms does not permit one to fill them in. For that one needs either another piece of software ... or an old-fashioned typewriter.

To answer your second question, the answer is NO, it would be UNusual. But not unheard of. Some intellectual property attorneys, including myself, are active in the business side as well. Some are members of the Licensing Executives Society, see http://www.les.org As it happens, a month ago I attended the annual meeting of LES (USA and Canada) that was held in San Diego and delivered a talk there on the use of online communications in support of licensing activities.

Advantages of Copyright Registration

You need to file a form TX for your copyright registration, accompanied by $20 for each registration. There are special procedures for monthly periodicals, phono records (= CDs these days), photographs, and other works.

As Mr. Elman stated, the good news is that today you automatically have a copyright as soon as you "fix" your work on paper (printing one copy of your work will do, if you authored on a computer, or typing it on paper, or writing it out longhand will do if not using a computer).

The advantages of registring your copyright are that someone who wants to license the work has a way to find you , and potentially make a deal with you that pays you money. Registration also affords you benefits in the event that someone takes your work without your permission, and you end up suing them and winning. In that event, the damages that you collect are somewhat easier to prove, and may be larger than what you can show you lost in profits due to the unauthorized copying. You can complete the forms yourself, or have an attorney help you determine how many copyrights to apply for, and assist you with other issues relative to your business needs.