The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a copy of the work from an official government source.
Before 1978, in the United States, federal copyright was generally secured by the act of publication with notice of copyright or by registration of an unpublished work.[1] This has now been largely superseded by international conventions, principally the Berne Convention, which provide rights harmonized at an international level without a requirement for national registration. However, the U.S. still provides legal advantages for registering works of U.S. origin.
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It is a common misconception to confuse copyright registration with the granting of copyright.
Copyright is itself an automatic international right, governed by international conventions - principally the Berne Convention (which dates from 1886). This means that copyright exists whether a work is registered or not. When the US signed up to the Convention in 1989, the internal registration system was retained, but foreign works must now be treated as though already registered in the US in accordance with the Berne Convention.
Professor Lawrence Lessig, Representative Lofgren and others have suggested that countries impose registration requirements after the internal term of protection required by the Berne Convention.
All United States copyright registrations and renewals registered since 1978 have been published online at the Copyright Office website. Registrations and renewals prior to 1978 [3] were published in semi-annual softcover Copyright Catalogs. For films from 1894 to 1969, inclusive, Library of Congress published hardcover Cumulative Copyright Catalogs, each covering ten or more years.
Please see the Copyright Catalog article for links to download digital copies of these pre-1978 US catalogs.
| Country | Registration Agency (if any) | Copyright registration requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Albania | Albanian Author’s Right Office | Voluntary.[4] Registration is acceptable in court as evidence of author's right.[5] |
| Antigua and Barbuda | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[6] |
| Argentina | Ministry of Justice, Security, and Human Rights | Voluntary. Registration serves as presumption of authorship and date of creation.[7] |
| Australia | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[8] |
| Brazil | Various, depending on subject matter[9] | Voluntary. Registration may help to provide evidence of authorship and which may aid in certifying precedence in the case of two similar works.[10] |
| Canada | Canadian Intellectual Property Office | Voluntary. Registration is evidence of ownership in an infringement case.[11] |
| China | National Copyright Administration | Voluntary. Recommended, especially for software.[12] |
| Denmark | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[13] |
| Egypt | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[14] |
| France | Office of Literacy and Artistic Property | Voluntary, may establish evidence of date of creation and a presumption of ownership.[15] |
| Germany | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[16] |
| India | Copyright Office | Voluntary, establishes prima facie evidence of the facts contained on the registration certificate and may be used in court as proof of those facts.[17] |
| Israel | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[18] |
| Jamaica | None - The Intellectual Property Services Centre is a non-profit organization that provides private registration services and is recommended by the Jamaican Intellectual Property Office for that purpose[19] | Not officially available, though voluntary registration through the Intellectual Property Services Centre provides rebuttable evidence of authorship and/or ownership. The Jamaican Intellectual Property Office officially recommends the practice of "poor man's copyright" to provide evidence of ownership and creation date.[19] |
| Japan | Agency for Cultural Affairs | Voluntary, establishes presumption of facts contained in registration for use in court.[20] |
| Kenya | Kenya Copyright Board | Voluntary, establishes prima facie evidence of the facts contained on the registration certificate and may be used in court as proof of those facts |
| Lithuania | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[21] |
| Mexico | National Copyrights Institute | Voluntary, establishes prima facie evidence of ownership.[22] |
| Russian Federation | Rospatent | Voluntary registration available for computer programs and databases.[23] |
| Spain | Ministry of Culture | Voluntary, offers refutable presumption of copyright and ownership, but not required to file suit for infringement.[24] |
| Sweden | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[25] |
| Turkey | Ministry of Culture | Required for cinematographic works and phonograms, voluntary for all other works. Registration may be used as evidence.[26] |
| Ukraine | National Office of Intellectual Property | Voluntary.[27] |
| United Kingdom | None | Not required. No voluntary procedure available.[28] |
| United States of America | United States Copyright Office | Not required to obtain copyright protection, but required for domestic copyright owners to bring a suit for copyright infringement in federal court. Not required for a federal court's subject-matter jurisdiction, however, as established through the Supreme Court decision in Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick.[29][30] Registration establishes prima facie evidence of facts contained in registration certificate if made within five years of first publication. Copyright owners are precluded from collecting statutory damages and/or attorney's fees for any infringement occurring before registration.[31] Foreign copyright owners are not required to register before suing for copyright infringement, but at least one court has held that they are subject to the same preclusion of statutory damages as domestic authors.[32] |