Copyright Registrations
You created it through blood, sweat, and tears.
Now protect it.
Copyrights protect creative works, such as books, photographs, drawings, paintings, songs, and computer code. They allow you to stop unauthorized reproduction. Unlike trademarks, copyrights protect original expressions of ideas, not just ideas themselves.
You automatically have copyrights in your tangible creative works the moment they’re created. However, enforcing copyrights without registration is challenging. Federal registration is necessary to stop others from using and distributing your copyrighted works.
We recommend filing a federal copyright application with the Copyright Office as soon as possible after creation to establish an “effective date.” You’ll also need to submit a copy of the work, called a “deposit,” either electronically or by mail. Our flat-rate fee for filing a copyright registration is $550.00.
Copyright applications typically take 4–5 months to be processed and approved, but can vary depending on the type of work and any defects in the application. Once registered, you’re retroactively protected from the application submission date.