- Home
- About The Firm
- Practice Areas
- Areas Served
- Resources
- Blog
- Contact Us
Protecting your intellectual property is vital to preserving your business interests. This is true whether you are a sole individual looking to register your rights to written material or you run a company that needs to protect your intellectual property from other competitors. The best way to do this is to register for copyright protection. Copyright registration gives you the sole authority to display, perform, or otherwise distribute your copywritten work. It also allows you to pursue legal action should another party use your intellectual property without your permission.
A West Palm copyright lawyer is available to help you during each stage of the process. Whether you are looking to register your original material or need to pursue an infringement lawsuit against another party, the determined intellectual property attorneys from Lomnitzer Law are ready to step in and protect your creative assets.
Copyright is just one example of intellectual property. In general, copyright applies to works of art or unique creations that are the product of the creator’s originality. This can include:
Once the tangible creation of this work is complete, a creator will want to register their items for copyright protection. A West Palm copyright attorney could provide more information about what works fall under the umbrella of copyright and prepare all necessary information and applications for registration.
Registering for copyright protection comes with many advantages. The most important among these is that it notifies other parties of the proper ownership of an item and grants the ability to pursue an infringement lawsuit in the event of an infringing use.
Copyright registration takes place through the United States Copyright Office. The Copyright Office allows people to perform copyright searches to determine the ownership of materials, as well as register works for legal protection. The role of a lawyer is to confirm that everything is in place for proper registration but they can also assist someone in confirming that a work in indeed already registered, in the event there is a dispute about ownership.
Holding copyright ownership over a creation gives the owner the sole authority to perform, display, distribute, or otherwise show that material in a public place. Most importantly, it means that the holder has the sole authority to profit from that use. Any usage that occurs without the owner’s express permission is an infringement of their copyright.
A West Palm copyright attorney is ready to pursue infringement lawsuits on behalf of copyright holders. According to 17 United States Code § 501, copyright holders have the ability to demand that infringers cease their misuse of the work and seek out compensation for the profit that they lost out on, plus attorney’s fees.
Talking with an attorney now could help someone protect their legal right to use and distribute their own intellectual property. This includes drafting licensing agreements, which allows the copyright holder to authorize other parties to use their work. License agreements can serve a variety of purposes, such as allowing a publisher to reproduce copies of a book, a cinema to show a movie, or a commercial to use a specific song.
Creating a work of art comes with both benefits and responsibilities. Whether you are an individual or the owner of a company, you will want to file for copyright protection as soon as possible. Books, films, websites, and music are all intellectual property in the eyes of the law that grant ownership to the author. Only by registering these works with the U.S. Copyright Office can you properly inform others of your ownership and preserve your ability to demand compensation and injunctive relief in the event of an infringement.
Reach out to a West Palm copyright lawyer today. The highly skilled team at Lomnitzer Law can evaluate your current intellectual property holdings, register that work, and even pursue lawsuits against unauthorized usage. Speak with us today to schedule your appointment.
