Register your copyright or you cannot sue for infringement in the US

[aeshnidae]

Just a heads up, in late March 2019, the US Supreme Court reaffirmed that in order to sue for copyright infringement in the United States, your copyright must be registered with the US Copyright Office. If you have not registered your copyright, you still own copyright in your works and other people have no right to use your copyrighted works, but you can't actually sue for infringement unless your copyright is registered. (You can recover for infringements that occur prior to registering your copyright, though.)

The fee to register online, for basic protection, is $35. See the US Copyright Office FAQ and the US Copyright Office Fees, particularly page 7.

The Supreme Court case is Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.Com.

If you have questions, post here I'll do my best to provide answers.

ETA: This post is really for US citizens and non-US citizens who live in the US. Foreign (that is, non-US) works don't need to worry about this because foreign works are protected by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. I think even if a non-US citizen wanted to sue in US court for copyright infringement, you would not first have to register with the US Copyright Office because US courts will look to the Berne Convention and apply that in lieu of US copyright law.

[Naima]

Does this apply for commercial brands?

[Redrobes]

When infringement occurs that you wish to sue for, you register it and once that has been confirmed you bring the lawsuit then ?

[ladiestorm]

when you say register copyright... does that mean having to register each and every piece you copyright? Or do they mean registering your copyright as: for example my copyright is ©SDMcDaniel, and any item/project with my copyright on it is considered registered under my copyright?

Never mind, I saw it for myself. Each work, or collection of works has to be registered. And if there is someone that can't afford to register their copyrights, then they are screwed. I've never understood why we should have to pay money to legally claim our property as ours.

[aeshnidae]

Does this apply for commercial brands?

Yes, for all copyright. But this is only if you need to sue in court (in the US) for infringement, either to get an injunction (to make someone stop using your work) or to get damages (money to make you whole after someone infringes on your work). You do not need to register your copyright in order to send cease and desist letters or request that a website remove content that infringes on your copyright.

When infringement occurs that you wish to sue for, you register it and once that has been confirmed you bring the lawsuit then ?

Yes. You can sue for infringement that took place prior to registering your copyright.

when you say register copyright... does that mean having to register each and every piece you copyright? Or do they mean registering your copyright as: for example my copyright is ©SDMcDaniel, and any item/project with my copyright on it is considered registered under my copyright?

Never mind, I saw it for myself. Each work, or collection of works has to be registered. And if there is someone that can't afford to register their copyrights, then they are screwed. I've never understood why we should have to pay money to legally claim our property as ours.

You still own the copyright automatically, even if you don't register it, so you can still send cease and desist letters, license your copyright, etc. But yes, each work has to be registered in order to sue in court. There's a legal rationale for this (it's an administrative law doctrine called "exhaustion of administrative remedies") but the fact that there's a reason doesn't make it any less irritating that in order to go after people who are stealing our work, we have to register the work.

[ladiestorm]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I do understand in a way. I do have two books registered and in the Library of Congress.

But those are books. It's different when the item is a painting, or a sculpture, or a piece of digital artwork.

[Mouse]

I'm a UK citizen. Does this mean that I would have to have registered my copyright in the US for the privilege of being allowed to defend my work if I get ripped off by an American citizen?

As far as I know I don't have to pay to buy the right to protect my work from anyone else in the world!

EDIT: I just had an idea. If a person registers a trademark, and that registered trademark appears on every single last piece of their work in exactly the same way each time, could you argue that all the work is covered under the same registration because it all contains the very same properly registered (and hopefully difficult to erase) trademark?

[Voolf]

I'm a UK citizen. Does this mean that I would have to have registered my copyright in the US for the privilege of being allowed to defend my work if I get ripped off by an American citizen?

In 1988, Congress removed foreign works from §411(a)’s dominion in order to comply with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works’ bar on copyright formalities for such works. See §9(b)(1), 102 Stat. 2859.
Despite proposals to repeal §411(a)’s registration requirement entirely, however, see S. Rep. No. 100‒352, p. 36 (198, Congress maintained the requirement for domestic works,

As I understand this. The paragraph 411(a) concern only works in USA. Correct me if I am wrong.

Besides Mouse, I believe that when you sue, you apply your country law. If you would go to America and try to sue using American system, then you have to register.

As far as I know I don't have to pay to buy the right to protect my work from anyone else in the world!

Well according to the US law you have to IN THE USA. Basicly you are still the owner of the work you created you and have all the rights, but in order to pursue legal charges about infrigement in court of USA you have to register you work. If you don't, all you can do is just sent desist letters and spread the word that this company/person is stealing your work. The company will usually back off to preserve their reputation, if they really used someones work without permission.

EDIT: I just had an idea. If a person registers a trademark, and that registered trademark appears on every single last piece of their work in exactly the same way each time, could you argue that all the work is covered under the same registration because it all contains the very same properly registered (and hopefully difficult to erase) trademark?

No, it doesn't work like that. If you register trademark, later on if somebody use your art with the trademark on it, you can ony sue that person for using your trademark on the work, not the actual work. So if person cut the trademark out, you have no basis to sue anymore.

[Mouse]

Thank you for clarifying that for me Voolf

Looks like Trump is trying to find the money to build that stupid wall again. This always happens. When the rich won't fund you, sc*** the poor.

[Voolf]

You are welcome, although I would not jump to conclusion like that.
I doubt Trump has much to do with this. Going through that legal document aeshnidae posted, I think this register rule has been a law for quite some time.

I believe this is to make it easier to settle future lawsuits. It seems those take several months in court to resolve. Submitting your work gives court quick and easy access to undeniable proof it's yours speeding up the proccess.
I believe registering your work takes much more time and effort than just showing it. You have to submint more documents and some clerks have to do all the checking and paperwork. This unfortunately takes money, hence you need to pay.

I agree that this is a pain in the ....., but i can understand this. When two parties are arguing that the work is their and nobody has any proof those cases can take long time and courts have probably enough and said "wanna protect your intelectual property, register it". It is how I see it.