Should I Register My Copyright?

Copyright registration is not needed in the United States to have enforceable rights in a copyright. It is unlike a patent, where an issued patent is needed to have enforceable rights.

However, there are very good reasons for registering a copyright with the United States Copyright Office, including:

1. In some courts, it is not possible to sue an infringer until there is a registration. This can delay obtaining relief needed on short notice, such as a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against copyright infringement.
2. If a registration is in place before infringement begins, the copyright owner can be awarded attorney fees.
3. If a copyright registration is in place before infringement begins, the copyright owner can collect statutory damages, which in may cases can be substantially more than actual damages. For example, record companies are obtaining judgments for many thousands of dollars for illegal downloading of songs where the actual damages from any particular infringer would be much less, i.e., in the order of what and illegal download from iTunes would cost.

We're No. 1

We’re proud to announce that U.S. News and World Report placed us in Tier 1 for Intellectual Property Law Firms in their 2010 Best Law Firms survey.  We believe we are the only firm of our size (under 40 attorneys) so honored due to our ability to offer the quality of very large firms, with the personal attention available from comparably smaller firms.