Copyright registration will help you take ownership of your work in St. Petersburg and allow for others to know that you are serious in asserting your creative property rights. Let the team at Larson and Larson help you with the paperwork and filing process so you can focus on creating, selling, and distributing your works, productions, or creations.
How Long Will Copyright Registration Keep My Work Protected?
Time limits on intellectual property protection are always at the forefront of everyone’s mind. How long will copyright registration protect my work in St. Petersburg? What happens when I am no longer alive; can my family claim my work? These are important questions for anyone who has spent his or her life creating art, software, music, or another creative work.
The good news is that your work will be protected during your lifetime, but the time limit does not end there; your family can continue to reap the rewards from your original works for seventy years after your death. Afterwards, your copyright will expire, and your work will be released to the public. This is because the government wants to create an atmosphere in which creative endeavors benefit the creators, but also flow into the public domain to encourage further development of ideas.
What Types of Works are Protected with Copyright Registration?
If you want legal protection over your brilliant, yet vague ideas, you will not get it. Your thoughts must take on the tangible form before copyright registration takes place. Your work does not need to be published first before you begin filing to claim your rights — unpublished creations can be protected. Keep in mind, however, that you must be the creator and the production must be your original work. If you have created anything in St. Petersburg that fits into any of the following categories, you will want to secure your legal rights through a copyright registration:
- Literature and literary works
- Computer games and software programs
- Plays, operas, musicals, and other dramatic productions as well as the music that that goes along with them
- Choreographed dances and routines
- Graphic arts
- Pictorial and sculptural works
- Movies and various audio-visual creations
- Music, compositions, and other sound recordings
- Architectural creations
If you have a work that you produced which does not seem to fit into these copyright registration categories, it may still be subject to copyright, or perhaps trademark or patent. Be sure to discuss your specific work, innovation, or creation with your St. Petersburg intellectual property attorney to determine what kind of legal protection can be obtained in your case. Check out our blog to learn more about patents and trademarks if your innovation does not fit into the list above.
What Does Copyright Registration Ensure?
Once your copyright registration is finalized, you have legally backed, exclusive rights to your creative work. If someone in St. Petersburg or throughout the United States infringes your rights by selling, reproducing, or distributing your creations without your consent, you can take action against them. Copyright registration grants you the following exclusive rights:
- To reproduce your creations.
- To create derivative works based on your originals.
- To distribute reprinted copies of your work.
- To sell, rent, lease, lend or transfer ownership.
- To hold public performances of your works.
- To display your works publicly.
- To transmit your sound creations live or digitally.
You can grant permission to others, but when you do not give your consent to another person or entity, you remain the sole owner of these rights to your creative works. Claiming your rights through the copyright registration process will give you more presumptions if someone infringes upon your creative property. Should you need to sue over violation of your protection, Larson and Larson can help advise you and represent you in court.
Call Larson and Larson to Secure Your Creative Works
No one in St. Petersburg is happy to see infringing parties profit from someone else’s creative endeavors, so make sure that your work goes through the proper copyright registration to ensure that you and your family get the recognition and profit you deserve. Larson and Larson can help you through the process of securing legal rights to your creative works today. Call us at 727-546-0660 to get started or contact us online.