Registering Your Copyrights Is Now Required Before You Can File A Lawsuit

In March of 2019, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that copyright creators must register their copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office before they can file an infringement lawsuit. “Registration” in this case means that the Copyright Office has made some decisions about your application. Obtaining a decision can take 5+ months.

In other words, that unopened envelope you’ve tucked away that contains a copy of your work is now useless. The ruling also states that copyright creators must have their registration completed before filing — simply filing the application is not enough.

Not only is registration mandatory, it also provides you with a host of benefits:

• You receive a certificate as physical proof of your registration.
• There is a public record of your ownership.
• Registration gives you the option to file an infringement suit, if necessary.
• You may be eligible to collect statutory damages and attorney’s fees from litigation.
• Registration is considered factual evidence in a court of law if filed within 5 years of publication.
• You can record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies of your work.
• Registering your works entitles you to collect damages at the basic statutory level (between $750 and $30,000 per work) at the court’s discretion. Damages may increase to $150,000 per work if the infringement was determined to be deliberate. Additionally, you may also be awarded attorney’s fees as well.

Registration can often take months to complete, so we recommend that you get started with your application as soon as you have all of the information to, rather than wait and pay hundreds of dollars to express-file your application because of legal issues.

Cosynd is the easiest and most affordable solution to file your copyright applications on your behalf. We’ll figure out the right application to file on your behalf and allow you to register multiple works on the same application to keep costs down. To get started, head over to www.cosynd.com