Howard M. Cohn - Patent Attorney

North Coast Patent & Trademark Office - Howard M. Cohn & Associates

WHAT IS A COPYRIGHT?

A copyright is a form of protection provided by the government of the United States 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 This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Copyright protection is available for all unpublished works, regardless of the nationality or residence of the author. Copyright protects the author's original expression as contained in the work but does not usually extend to any idea, procedure, process, method, system, discovery, name or title.

A copyright is the exclusive, legally secured right to reproduce (as by writing or printing), publish, and sell the matter and form of a literary, musical, or artistic work (as by dramatizing, novelizing, performing or reciting in public, or filming) for a period in the U.S. of 28 years with a right of renewal for another 28 years. The owner of copyright has the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress:

		to reproduce copies of the original work;
		to prepare derivative works or "spinoffs" that are based on the original;
		to distribute copies of the work, by sale, transfer, licensing or lending;
		to publicly perform or display the copyrighted work; and
		to prevent the intentional modification, distortion or mutilation of any work of the visual arts that would harm the artist's reputation or honor and to prevent the destruction of a well-recognized and protected work.

A copyright does not protect the idea or concept; it only protects the way in which an author has expressed an idea or concept. If, for example, a scientist publishes an article explaining a new process for making a medicine, the copyright prevents others from substantially copying the article, but it does not prevent anyone from using the process described to prepare the medicine. In order to protect the process, the scientist must obtain a patent.

WHAT CAN BE PROTECTED?

Literary works, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Sound Recoding, and Serials can be protected with a copyright.

		Literary works normally includes: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, textbooks, cookbooks, catalogs, ad copy, speeches, software codes and computer programs.
		Visual Arts includes paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, maps, graphic designs, art reproductions, cartoons, unique package design, technical drawings, architectural works and web site designs.
		Performing Arts includes musical compositions, dramatic works, scripts, choreography, motion pictures, and other multimedia or audiovisual works.
		Sound Recording protection should be used to protect published and unpublished recordings of musical, dramatic, or literary works to protect the sound recording itself, in addition to any copyright in the underlying work.
		Serials are literary works published in a series of installments, such as magazines, newspapers, bulletins, journals and digests.

Howard M. Cohn & Associates can help register your copyright. Contact us for more information.



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