Intellectual Property Law
Copyright applies to original works including:
Copyright does not cover:
Our process focuses on education first. We help you understand the landscape, your options, and what each step actually means before any decisions are made.
We start by identifying what type of work you have created and whether it qualifies for copyright. Not every work receives the same scope of coverage, and understanding the nature of what you own is the foundation for every decision that follows.
Copyright attaches automatically when an original work is fixed in a tangible form. But automatic copyright and registered copyright are not the same thing. We walk through what each status means and what practical differences exist between them.
Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office creates a public record of your ownership and, depending on timing, affects what legal remedies are available if infringement occurs. We help you think through whether registration is the right step for your specific work.
Ownership is not always straightforward. Works created by employees, works created by contractors, and works created collaboratively all raise different ownership questions. Sorting these out clearly before a dispute arises is considerably easier than sorting them out after.
If you want others to use your work under defined conditions, or if you want to use someone else’s work, licensing is how those arrangements are structured. We help you understand what a license covers and what it does not.
If someone copies, reproduces, or distributes your work without permission, you have legal options. What those options look like depends on whether your work is registered, when the infringement occurred, and what outcome you are seeking. We help you understand the landscape before you decide how to respond.
Copyright covers original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. This includes written, visual, musical, audiovisual, and digital works. The protection applies to the specific, original expression of an idea, not the idea itself. Copyright does not cover facts, methods, names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. A novel qualifies. The plot concept behind it does not. A photograph qualifies. The subject matter depicted in it does not, on its own.
Copyright attaches automatically when an original work is fixed in a tangible form. Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is a separate, voluntary step. However, registration before infringement occurs, or within three months of first publication, may affect what legal remedies are available if you need to take action against someone who uses your work without permission. For commercially valuable works, registration is generally worth considering before a problem arises rather than after.
For works created by an individual author today, copyright generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Works made for hire and works created under certain other circumstances follow different duration rules. Copyright terms have also changed over time under federal law, so older works may follow different timelines depending on when they were created and first published.
Names, titles, slogans, and short phrases are not eligible for copyright. A logo with sufficient artistic originality may qualify for copyright as a visual work, but brand identifiers such as business names and slogans are typically addressed through trademark law rather than copyright. If your question is primarily about a business name or brand, that is a good topic to explore under the trademark side of intellectual property law.
Infringement occurs when someone reproduces, distributes, publicly performs, publicly displays, or creates a derivative work based on a copyrighted work without authorization from the rights holder. Not every unauthorized use rises to the level of infringement, and some uses may qualify as fair use depending on the circumstances. What you can do in response to infringement depends on whether your work is registered, when the infringement occurred, and what outcome you are trying to reach.
Since 1989, copyright notice is not legally required for protection under U.S. law. However, including a notice, typically the copyright symbol, the year of first publication, and the rights holder’s name, can discourage copying and may affect certain legal defenses if infringement occurs. Many creators and businesses continue to use copyright notices for practical reasons even though they are no longer mandatory.
Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission in certain contexts, such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, education, and parody. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use is a fact-specific determination based on four statutory factors: the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used relative to the whole, and the effect on the market for the original. There is no simple checklist that resolves every fair use question. When the stakes are meaningful, this is worth discussing with an attorney.
Ownership depends on the nature of the working relationship. Work created by an employee within the scope of their employment is generally owned by the employer under the work made for hire doctrine. Work created by an independent contractor follows different rules. In most cases, a contractor owns the copyright in what they create unless there is a written agreement that transfers ownership or designates the work as made for hire, and the work falls into one of the specific categories recognized by law. Without a written agreement, many businesses assume they own work they have paid for when they may not.
A work made for hire is a category of copyright ownership defined by federal law. It covers two situations: work created by an employee within the scope of employment, and work specially ordered or commissioned under a written agreement that designates it as made for hire, provided it falls into one of nine specific categories listed in the Copyright Act. When a work qualifies as made for hire, the employer or commissioning party, rather than the individual creator, is considered the legal author and initial owner of the copyright. Whether a particular working arrangement qualifies is a factual and legal question that written agreements can help clarify upfront.
