compilation copyright registrations

patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
edited September 2006 in Protecting Your Ideas
There is a new case that might be of use to those interested in copyright registrations. Each time a copyright registration is filed, a fee must be paid to the copyright office.  To save money, some people register a collection of individual creative works as a compilation.  That way, they only have to pay one registration fee for the compilation instead of a fee for each creative work in that compilation.  The case involved a compilation of law forms.  The copier won because [among other reasons] only part of the compilation was copied - and not all of it.  If you do programming and create business forms, it is a case worth looking at.  Send me your e-mail if you would like a copy of the case.
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Comments

  • EricEric subscriber Posts: 8
    James,
    That is interesting. Considering that it isn`t really that expensive to copyright something, I would definitely make sure that such items are filed indivudually.
    I`m still  surprised that the copier won the case though. I wonder what odd circumstance allowed for this. 
    Thanks for that tidbit. I shudder when I hear news like that.
    ~Eric
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  • patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    True, it`s only $45 each.  However, if you write a new poem every day or draw a new cartoon character every day, at the end of 100 days you have spent $4,500 for 100 individual registrations.  If you do the compilation registration route for 100 cartoons and somebody copies "only half" of the entire compilation, that might not be infringement.  If you register each one individually and somebody copies fifty cartoons, you could get some HUGE statutory damages - thousands of dollars.  However, you do have to "invest" in individual registrations.
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  • westnovawestnova subscriber Posts: 1
    that is something that I might be ableto use,but if they only use or copy some of the ideas that I register then it seems that I would not have much protection. Right?  Wes
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  • patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    compilation protection protects the whole, not the individual entries
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