Copyright
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One type of intellectual property protection that is often overlooked by businesses is the copyright. Presumably, the reason copyrights are frequently ignored is the fact that they only provide a relatively narrow scope of protection, especially when compared to trademarks, patents and trade secrets. Despite this narrow scope of protection, there are a number of types of businesses for which copyright protection can be particularly effective, including businesses that create software, write instruction manuals, create web pages or create artistic or literary works.
A copyright is a form of intellectual property protection that is extended to the authors of "original works of authorship" and arises the instant a work is created in fixed form. The author of a copyrighted work essentially has a monopoly over the work for his or her lifetime plus an additional seventy years (for corporate authors, this monopoly extends for a set term of ninety-five years). During this time period, the author has the sole right to reproduce the copyrighted work, prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work, or to exploit the copyrighted work for commercial gain.
As noted above, though, the scope of copyright protection is relatively limited. A copyright only protects an author’s words if and to the extent they are original. Ideas and facts contained in the work are not protected at all. Thus, for example, copyrighting a manuscript that describes an invention would not protect the actual invention itself, which would have to be protected by a patent, but rather the manner of describing the invention.
Although a copyright is immediately and automatically created upon the completion of a work, it remains important to obtain actual registration of those copyrights that are important to an author or a business with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. Until the copyright is registered, the author is unable to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit and, unless the copyright is not registered within three months of the date the work was created or at least before the date of infringement by a third party, the author may also lose certain rights to receive statutory damages.
Even businesses that do not create copyrightable works must constantly be cognizant of the effect of the copyright laws to avoid infringement lawsuits and disputes over ownership of copyrightable materials.
Our attorneys are experienced in filing applications for copyright registrations. In addition, Woods Rogers PLC frequently assists clients with bringing and defending copyright infringement lawsuits and drafting license and assignment agreements for copyrights.