Copyright Registration for Inventors. Episode 75

Why Copyright Registration Matters for Inventors

A few episodes back, I took a break from discussing patents to talk about trademarks. In this episode, I’m taking another break to discuss copyright registration and why it’s important for inventors.

You might think that copyrights are only relevant for books, movies, and TV shows. While that’s true, copyrights cover much more and can provide an additional layer of protection for your intellectual property. As an inventor, the two main things you’ll likely want to copyright are product manuals and packaging.

A product manual is similar to a book, and since books can be copyrighted, so can product manuals. Packaging, on the other hand, can be considered an artistic creation, like a painting or a photograph, and can also qualify for copyright protection.

Why Copyright Product Manuals and Packaging?

There are several advantages to copyrighting your product manuals and packaging.

First, copyright registration is extremely inexpensive compared to patents. The filing fee is typically between $35 and $55, which is nothing compared to the thousands of dollars required for a patent. Even if you hire an attorney to handle the registration, the cost will likely be just a few hundred dollars—still much cheaper than obtaining a patent.

Copyright protection grants the owner exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the copyrighted work. While you might not think of your product manual as particularly creative, according to copyright law, it qualifies as an original creative work. The same applies to product packaging, but there are some restrictions.

If your packaging consists solely of a product name in a specific font and color scheme, the Copyright Office may reject the application. To strengthen your case, incorporate creative elements such as photographs or illustrations. If you’re unable to obtain copyright protection for your packaging, you might still be able to register it as trade dress with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, though trade dress has different rules that I won’t cover in this episode.

Copyright Protection Against Counterfeiting

One major concern for inventors is counterfeiting. If someone counterfeits your product and replicates your manual and packaging, they are infringing on your copyright. This gives you legal grounds to sue them.

You may wonder why a patent isn’t sufficient protection. The problem is that patents aren’t always granted. Even if you have a great product, your patent application might be rejected. However, even without a patent,

copyright and trademark protections can still help you fight counterfeiters.

If a counterfeiter copies your product but changes the manual and packaging, copyright protection won’t be as useful. But if they reproduce your materials exactly, copyright law gives you a strong legal tool to stop them.

Copyright Duration

One advantage of copyright protection is its longevity. A copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. If a company, rather than an individual, owns the copyright, it lasts for 95 years from publication.

Since most product manuals and packaging won’t be in use for nearly that long, copyright duration isn’t a major concern for most inventors.

Damages in Copyright Infringement Cases

Another benefit of copyright registration is the potential for significant statutory damages. Unlike patents, where you must prove actual financial loss, copyright law provides for statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. Section 504.

Statutory damages typically range from $200 to $150,000 per copyrighted work. This means that even if you can’t show financial loss, you may still be awarded substantial damages in an infringement lawsuit.

However, statutory damages are calculated per work, not per counterfeit item. If someone counterfeits your product and reproduces your copyrighted manual 100 times, you won’t receive $150,000 per counterfeit copy. Instead, the maximum statutory damage award would be $150,000 total for that work. The amount awarded depends on factors such as whether the infringement was willful. If a counterfeiter is deliberately ripping you off, you’re more likely to receive the higher end of the statutory damages range.

How to Register a Copyright

There are two ways to register a copyright: through an attorney or by filing it yourself. If you want to handle it yourself, go to copyright.gov and create an account.

The registration process can be completed entirely online. You can upload your materials electronically rather than mailing them in, though mailing remains an option.

To illustrate the process, I’ll explain the paper form version. If you visit copyright.gov/forms, you’ll find multiple registration options. For product manuals, the form Literary Form TX is the most relevant.

The form consists of four pages:

• The first two pages provide instructions on how to fill out the application, including details on titling your work, identifying the author, indicating whether it’s a work for hire, and specifying the creation and publication date.

• The last two pages are the actual application form, which contains nine sections.

If you register online, the questions are the same as those in the paper form, and help prompts are available on each webpage. At the end of the process, you upload your file and pay the filing fee, usually with a credit card.

Processing Time for Copyright Registration

If you file electronically, copyright registration typically takes one to seven months. If you submit by mail, it can take up to 15 months. There is significant variability in processing times, but if you file online, you can track your application status.

Once your copyright is registered, you will receive an official registration certificate from the Copyright Office. While some applications may face rejection or require back-and-forth discussions, copyright registration is generally the easiest form of intellectual property protection to obtain.

If patents have a difficulty level of 100, I’d estimate trademarks are around 10, and copyrights are about 5, possibly even lower. These numbers are just my own rough estimates, but the point remains—copyrights are much easier to obtain than patents or trademarks.

However, keep in mind that copyrights are not automatic. If you attempt to copyright something minimal, like a five-word sentence, it will likely be rejected. But if you have a legitimate, original product manual or packaging design with creative elements, you should be able to obtain copyright protection.

Conclusion

That’s the basics of copyright registration for inventors.

I’m Adam Diament, and until next time, keep on inventing!