Copyright is the form of statutory protection provided to original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression, including literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictorial, graphic and sculptural, motion picture and audio visual, sound recordings, and architectural works. Copyright does not protect facts or ideas.
In the United States, you must register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to file a lawsuit to enforce copyright in federal court. This means you must file an application for registration before you can sue someone for infringing your copyright, even if the infringement has already occurred.
A copyright registration lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. If a work is created by an employee and is owned by the employer, the copyright term lasts for 95 years from the date of first publication or 120 years from the year of creation, whichever expires first.
The Marks Gray intellectual property team prepares and files copyright registration for our clients’ original created works.