Copyright Registration and Infringement

How copyright arises automatically in an original work and what registration with the Copyright Office adds - the right to sue, statutory damages and fees - together with the elements of an infringement claim, the exclusive rights it protects, and the remedies and defenses on both sides.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of law firms for this.

What it means

Copyright protects original works of authorship - writing, music, images, film, software, architecture, choreography - from the moment they are fixed in a tangible form. No notice, publication or registration is required for the right to exist, and the © symbol is optional. Copyright does not protect ideas, facts, procedures, systems or methods of operation, only the particular expression of them, and it does not protect titles, names, short phrases or slogans, which are the province of trademark. The owner holds a bundle of exclusive rights: to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform and display it publicly, and for sound recordings to perform it by digital transmission. Ownership belongs to the author, or to the employer for a work made for hire, and lasts for a term fixed by statute.

Registration is a formality with teeth. A United States work cannot be sued on until the Copyright Office has registered it or refused it, and only a work registered before the infringement began - or within a short grace period after first publication - is eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees; an owner who registers after the infringement is limited to actual damages and the infringer's profits, which are often hard to prove. Registration also creates a presumption of validity if made within a period after publication, and is required to record the work with customs. It is inexpensive, done online, and the certificate is the exhibit every infringement case begins with.

An infringement claim requires ownership of a valid copyright and copying of protected expression - shown by direct evidence or by access plus substantial similarity - that amounts to an improper appropriation. Independent creation is a complete defense, as are license, fair use and the first-sale doctrine, under which the owner of a lawfully made copy may resell or lend it. Remedies are an injunction, actual damages and profits, or at the owner's election statutory damages per work within a range the statute sets, raised for willful infringement and reduced for innocent; impoundment and destruction of infringing copies; and attorney's fees at the court's discretion. Criminal penalties apply to willful infringement for commercial advantage or on a large scale.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

For a creator or small business the cheapest legal advice in this field is to register early and in batches, because the difference between a registered and an unregistered work at the moment of infringement is the difference between a claim worth pursuing and one that is not. A person who finds their work copied should preserve the evidence - screenshots with dates, the infringing URL, purchase records - and consult a lawyer before sending a demand, since a takedown notice, a license offer and a lawsuit are different tools for different infringers. A person accused of infringement should ask about fair use, license and the registration date before paying anything.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

Choose your state to see Copyrights law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z. A state marked “Intellectual Property” has no Copyrights listing yet and opens the broader page.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
  +1 other city

  • Montgomery
• Arizona (Chandler)
  +6 other cities

  • Gilbert
  • Glendale
  • Mesa
  • Phoenix
  • Scottsdale
  • Tucson
• Arkansas (Little Rock)
• California (Anaheim)
  +19 other cities

  • Chula Vista
  • Fontana
  • Fremont
  • Irvine
  • Long Beach
  • Oakland
  • Riverside
  • Sacramento
  • San Bernardino
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco
  • Santa Ana
  • and 7 more with fewer listed firms
• Colorado (Aurora)
  +2 other cities

  • Colorado Springs
  • Denver
• Connecticut (Bridgeport)
• Delaware (Wilmington)
• District of Columbia (Washington)
• Florida (Hialeah)
  +5 other cities

  • Jacksonville
  • Miami
  • Orlando
  • St Petersburg
  • Tampa
• Georgia (Atlanta)
• Hawaii (Honolulu)
• Illinois (Chicago)
• Indiana (Fort Wayne)
  +1 other city

  • Indianapolis
• Iowa (Des Moines)
• Kansas (Kansas City)
  +1 other city

  • Wichita
• Kentucky (Lexington)
  +1 other city

  • Louisville
• Louisiana (Baton Rouge)
  +2 other cities

  • New Orleans
  • Shreveport
• Maine (Portland, Intellectual Property)
• Maryland (Baltimore)
• Massachusetts (Boston)
• Michigan (Detroit)
• Minnesota (Minneapolis)
  +1 other city

  • Saint Paul
• Mississippi (Jackson)
• Missouri (St. Louis)
  +1 other city

  • Kansas City
• Montana (Billings)
• Nebraska (Lincoln)
  +1 other city

  • Omaha
• Nevada (Henderson)
  +3 other cities

  • Las Vegas
  • North Las Vegas
  • Reno
• New Hampshire (Manchester)
• New Jersey (Jersey City)
  +1 other city

  • Newark
• New Mexico (Albuquerque)
• New York (Buffalo)
  +2 other cities

  • New York City
  • Rochester
• North Carolina (Charlotte)
  +5 other cities

  • Durham
  • Fayetteville
  • Greensboro
  • Raleigh
  • Winston-Salem
• Ohio (Cincinnati)
  +3 other cities

  • Cleveland
  • Columbus
  • Toledo
• Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
  +1 other city

  • Tulsa
• Oregon (Portland)
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
  +1 other city

  • Pittsburgh
• Rhode Island (Providence)
• South Carolina (Columbia)
• South Dakota (Sioux Falls)
• Tennessee (Nashville)
  +1 other city

  • Memphis
• Texas (Austin)
  +12 other cities

  • Arlington
  • Corpus Christi
  • Dallas
  • El Paso
  • Fort Worth
  • Garland
  • Houston
  • Irving
  • Laredo
  • Lubbock
  • Plano
  • San Antonio
• Utah (Salt Lake City)
• Vermont (Burlington)
• Virginia (Richmond)
  +3 other cities

  • Chesapeake
  • Norfolk
  • Virginia Beach
• Washington (Seattle)
  +1 other city

  • Tacoma
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne, Intellectual Property)

Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• DMCA Takedown Notice and Counter-NoticeThe notice-and-takedown procedure under which a copyright owner asks a website, host or platform to remove infringing material, the platform removes it to keep its immunity, and the person who posted it may file a counter-notice to have it restored - with the penalties for a knowingly false notice on either side.
• Fair UseThe defense that allows limited use of a copyrighted work without permission for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research - the four statutory factors, what "transformative" has come to mean, and why no rule of thumb about word counts or percentages is the law.
• Patent (Utility, Design and Provisional Applications)The federal grant that lets an inventor exclude others from making, using or selling an invention for a fixed term - what can be patented, the novelty and non-obviousness tests, the difference between a utility, design and provisional application, and why the first-to-file rule makes the filing date everything.
• Right of PublicityThe right to control the commercial use of one's own name, likeness, voice and other identifying features - a state-law right that varies in who holds it, whether it survives death, and how it yields to news, commentary and expressive works under the First Amendment.
• Trade SecretInformation that derives value from not being generally known and that its owner takes reasonable steps to keep secret - formulas, customer lists, processes, source code - protected indefinitely under state law and a federal civil statute for as long as it stays secret, and lost the moment it does not.
• Trademark Registration and Likelihood of ConfusionHow a brand name, logo or slogan becomes a federally registered trademark - the distinctiveness spectrum, the use-based and intent-to-use applications, the examination and opposition process - and the likelihood-of-confusion test that decides both whether a mark can register and whether someone else's use infringes it.
• Trademark vs CopyrightTwo different protections that are constantly confused: one protects what identifies your source, the other protects what you created.
• Work Made for HireThe rule that makes an employer, not the creator, the author and owner of copyright in work created by an employee within the scope of employment - and the much narrower rule for freelancers, under which a commissioned work belongs to the client only if it falls within listed categories and a signed agreement says so.

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