A copyright is essentially a legal right of ownership that arises when an original work of authorship is fixed, or embodied in a sufficiently permanent or stable form, in any tangible medium of expression from which the work can be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a device. Thus, whenever a person puts pen to paper or makes a recording of their original work of authorship, they have a copyright in that work as of that moment, regardless of whether the work is published or not.

While there are inherent protections in any original work of authorship, obtaining a federal copyright registration on a work within three months of first publication permits the awarding of statutory damages and attorneys fees if your work is ever infringed, which can reach up to $100,000 per infringement. Absent a timely registration, proving damages for infringement is much more difficult.

The requirement for copyright protection of originality means that the work of authorship must be independently created and must possess a minimal degree of creativity.

Though the phrase "work of authorship" in the definition of a copyright would seem to imply that copyrights are only for novels, poems and the like, in fact, copyrightable works are much broader than this. Copyrightable works range from paintings to photographs, from musical compositions to musical performances, from sculptures to buildings, and from short stories to software.

Under the copyright laws, there are specifically eight different "work of authorship" categories: (1) literary works; (2) musical works; (3) dramatic works; (4) pantomimes and choreographic works; (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; (6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works; (7) sound recordings; and (8) architectural works. It should be noted that these categories are merely illustrative. In the end, virtually anything that meets the definition of a copyright can be protected.

For more information on copyrights, please visit our Copyright Resources page.

Otherwise, if you are interested in obtaining copyright protection on your work, or simply have further questions, we invite you to call 949-250-5800 or email us to schedule your FREE initial consultation, during which we can explain the copyright process to you in more detail.