COPYRIGHT
Copyright
law is in most respects the best way to protect intellectual property.
Most individuals find it difficult to understand the particulars of copyright
law and what benefits you receive when your intellectual property has been
registered with the United States Copyright Office. Our Office can assist
you in understanding the process and we can help in exploiting your copyright.
Our Office can assist you in the
following:
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Negotiating
and drafting agreements covering the development, transfer and licensing of
copyrighted works
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Defending
copyright infringement allegations and actions
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Drafting and
prosecuting applications for copyright registration
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Counseling
clients on the enforcement of copyrights
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Counseling
clients on the development and licensing of computer software
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Counseling
clients on multimedia licensing issues including content and music
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Investigating copyright ownership issues
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Counseling
clients on issues related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
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Conducting
copyright training programs
Copyright Basics
WHAT
IS COPYRIGHT?
Copyright is a form of protection
provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors
of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical,
artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to
both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act
generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to
authorize others to do the following:
To reproduce the work in copies or
phonorecords;
To prepare derivative works based upon
the work;
To distribute copies or phonorecords of
the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental,
lease, or lending;
To perform the work publicly, in the
case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and
motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
To display the copyrighted work
publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works,
pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the
individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
In the case of sound recordings, to
perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
WHO CAN CLAIM
COPYRIGHT
Copyright protection subsists
from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of
authorship immediately becomes the property
of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their
rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright.
In the case of works made for
hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author.
Section 101 of the copyright law defines a "work made for hire" as:
a work
prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
a work specially
ordered or commissioned for use as:
a
contribution to a collective work
a part of a
motion picture or other audiovisual work
a
translation
a
supplementary work
a
compilation
an
instructional text
a test
answer
material for a test
an atlas
if the parties expressly
agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a
work made for hire....
The authors of a joint work
are co-owners of the copyright in the work, unless there is an agreement to the
contrary.
Copyright in each separate
contribution to a periodical or other collective work is distinct from copyright
in the collective work as a whole and vests initially with the author of the
contribution.
Two General
Principles
-
Mere ownership
of a book, manuscript, painting, or any other copy or phonorecord does not
give the possessor the copyright. The law provides that transfer of ownership
of any material object that embodies a protected work does not of itself
convey any rights in the copyright.
-
Minors may
claim copyright, but state laws may regulate the business dealings involving
copyrights owned by minors. For information on relevant state laws, consult an
attorney.
What is Not Protected By Copyright?
Several categories of
material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection. These
include among others:
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Works that have
not been fixed in a tangible form of
expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or
recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written
or recorded)
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Titles, names,
short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of
typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients
or contents
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Ideas, procedures,
methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as
distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration
-
Works consisting
entirely of information that is common
property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars,
height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken
from public documents or other common sources)
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