Copyright protection advice

Copyright protection is an automatic right under international law, but evidence may be required to support your claim in the event of a dispute, so ensuring the best copyright protection for your work relies on several factors.

There are four simple steps you can take to ensure your work is safe.

1. Ensure your work is properly marked.

   A correctly worded notice will deter infringement, as it states that the work is protected under law, and also shows that you have an awareness of that right and take it seriously.

   For information on how to word your notice, please see our fact sheet P-03: Using copyright notices.

2. Register your work.

   The most important factor in establishing your claim in any dispute is having verifiable proof of date and content for your work.

   This valuable evidence is provided by our copyright registration service.

   As specialists in copyright registration, we ensure that you have the very best evidence to support your rights, while our strict provision policies ensure that the very best care is taken of any work we store within our archives.

   For information on registration, please see our fact sheet P-04: Registering copyright.

3. Keep or register supporting evidence.

   Supporting evidence falls into two categories:

   • Evolution of ideas

     This is evidence that the work progressed, rather than being copied from elsewhere, and normally takes the form of development work.

   • Footprints or watermarking

     This is normally evidence insert into finished documents that will identify the author in some way.

   For more details see our page on supporting evidence.

4. Agreement between co-authors.

   If your work is a joint venture, be sure you know exactly where you stand, who will own what rights, and what happens when someone leaves.

   For more details, see our page on agreements between co-authors.

Remember: The time to think about protecting your work is sooner rather than later, before it gets a chance to be copied by someone else. It will serve no purpose if you wait until your work is infringed, as that will be too late.

We strongly believe that a Copyright Witness registration provides the best evidence to prove your claim in any future disputes over your work.

Register your work today.

We also recommend registering development work earlier if it will be used speculatively for publishers etc.