Advantages of Copyright Registration

While it is not required that a “creative work” be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, it is still advisable that an author do so as soon as the creative work has been completed. This way there is concrete proof that you are the owner of your own creative work, and no one can dispute that.

Many people, however, fail to register their creative work for a variety of reasons. First, it costs thirty dollars, so they might feel that the expense is overrated. Further, they might feel that no one will steal their work, and therefore the act of registering a copyright is unnecessary. However, if you look at the amount of copyright cases that have seen the inside of a courtroom, you might have a different perspective.

Here are a few advantages of copyright registration:

1. Legal Recourse

Federal copyright law prohibits authors from suing for breaches of copyright law unless the work has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. This means that if someone steals your work, you cannot file a lawsuit until the work has been registered.

While you might think that you’ll be able to register the work as soon as copyright infringement is an issue, there will be added expense and time lost. You’ll have to pay more to expedite the copyrighting process, and filing your lawsuit will become more complicated. Not to mention, the judge or jury who hears your case will wonder why you didn’t initially copyright your work, which can work in the favor of the defendant in your case.

2. Damages

The plaintiff in a copyright infringement case can sue for the actual infringement of the copyright even if the registration was completed after the infringement occurred. However, the plaintiff will not be entitled to statutory damages and court fees unless the registration was completed in a “timely manner”. Currently, a timely manner is considered within three months of publication of the creative work.

This means that if you don’t copyright your work, you will not be entitled to statutory damages when and if an infringement occurs. In this case, the plaintiff will be required to prove actual damages.

3. Speed

Typically, copyright infringement cases involve the perpetrator’s ability to profit from the use of a copyrighted creative work. If you win a copyright lawsuit in court, then the infringer will be required to take the copyrighted work off the market, but this could be months or years after the actual infringement took place.

If, however, you have copyrighted your work by registration, then you are entitled to the removal of the copyrighted work from the market immediately. This means that gratification is much faster, and will expedite the process of removing the offending material from the market.