by Sandra Fikes

Created on: March 09, 2010

There is no requirement to register a copyright, since the law perceives a work to be protected by copyright as soon as the work is set in a tangible format. There are, however, reasons why an artist might want to register a copyright for their work.

A registration provides a provable public record of when a work was first created, which is invaluable should the question of copyright infringement ever arise. See Page 7 of Circular 1: Copyright Basics (

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf) for more information on why one might desire to have their work copyrighted.

Note that Copyright Office records, including deposit copies of the work for which the copyright has been registered, are public record. The Copyright Office even goes so far as to advice against registration in the case of items such as recipes that contain a secret ingredient, as the list of ingredients becomes a matter of public record – nullifying the secrecy of the secret ingredient. (See Fact Sheet FL-122 Recipes for more information. http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.pdf)

So, what do you do if you decide that it is right for you to register the copyright for your work? First you should visit http://www.copyright.gov/docs/fees.html to find out what the current fees are for copyright registration. As of the time I am writing this it it is $35 for a basic electronic filing using the online registration for a basic claim of an original work of authorship.

Assuming that registration is desirable for your work, we will now look at the process for obtaining a copyright as it is defined in Circular 1: Copyright Basics published by the United States Copyright Office.

Your application will be comprised of three items:

     ♦ Your application form
     ♦ Your non-nonrefundable filing fee
     ♦ A nonreturnable deposit copy of the registered item

The deposit copy is defined in Circular 7d: Mandatory Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for the Library of Congress (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ07d.pdf).

 Your copyright registration begins on the date that the Copyright Office has received the required materials to process your request. The processing of the request might take substantially longer, but your protection begins the date the Copyright Office has all of the required items.

 Electronic Copyright Office (eCO)
http://www.copyright.gov/eco/

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