Why You Should Always Register Your Copyrights as Quickly as Possible
You may have heard there’s no need to register your copyright, because it’s automatically protected. But this is only half the story—you can’t enforce your copyright without either a certificate of registration or a denial of registration from the Copyright Office.
Plus, there are a lot of reasons to register all of your copyrights promptly.
1. If you register a work within three months of the date of first publication, the registration is retroactive to the date of first publication.
The term “publication” has a technical meaning in the copyright laws, but generally speaking, “first publication” occurs on the date on which copies of the work are first made available to the public.
2. Prompt registration means you’re eligible to recover statutory damages.
Normally, the remedies for copyright infringement are the recovery of actual damages (if they can be proven) and court orders requiring all infringing copies to be destroyed and prohibiting future copying.
As you might guess, it’s often difficult, if not impossible, to prove actual damages. If, however, your copyright in the work was registered before the infringement occurred (or within three months of publication), you have the option of being awarded statutory damages rather than actual damages.
Statutory damages are no less than $750 and no more than $30,000 per work infringed, though if you establish that the infringement was willful, they may be as high as $150,000, and damages for an innocent infringer may be as low as $200.
3. Copyright infringement lawsuits are expensive.
If your copyright was registered prior to (or within three months of) publication and you prove that your work was infringed, you’re eligible for an award reimbursing the attorney’s fees you incurred in the case.
This also benefits you in settlement negotiations, because although the award isn’t guaranteed (it’s a matter of the court’s discretion), the infringer must factor in a potential award of attorney’s fees when it calculates the pros and cons of settling.
4. If you register your copyright within five years after its first publication, the registration is “prima facie evidence” of the copyright’s validity and of the facts stated in the certificate of registration.
This means there’s a presumption that your copyright is valid and that everything in the registration (e.g., the creator of the work, the owner of the copyright, and the dates the work was completed and published) is accurate.
Normally, in an infringement suit, you’d need to provide evidence to prove all of this, but with a timely registration, the burden shifts to the infringer.
In other words, instead of you having to prove your copyright is valid, the infringer needs to prove that it’s invalid. Similarly, instead of you being required to prove that the facts in your registration are true, the infringer has the burden of proving they’re inaccurate.
Copyright Registration of Short Online Literary Works
If you write blogs, social media posts, or other short online works such as poems and essays, you’ll be happy to learn that you will soon be able to register your copyrights more easily and less expensively.
The US Copyright Office has a new procedure, effective August 17, 2020, for registering “short online literary works.” Applicants will be able to register up to 50 copyrightable works with a single application and fee. Each work listed in the application will be registered as a separate work of authorship.
There are a number of limitations and requirements for use of the new GRTX application, in addition to those already required (e.g., originality and creativity).
These include:
- each work must be created by the same individual or group of individuals;
- none of the works can be a work made for hire;
- each covered work must be comprised mainly of text;
- each work must contain at least 50 but no more than 17,500 words;
- each work must be published as part of a website or online platform (e.g., online newspapers, social media websites, and social networking platforms); and
- each work must be published within a three-calendar-month period.
This type of registration covers only the text of each individual work—no other copyrightable aspect, such as photos or illustrations, is protected.
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Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about registering or enforcing your copyrights.
