Practice area
Copyright exists automatically — but it becomes enforceable when it’s registered.
You cannot sue over an unregistered work, and timely registration unlocks statutory damages and attorney’s fees. The firm handles Copyright Office registrations and enforcement for writers, artists, software developers, and creators. Flat fees, quoted in writing.
Automatic on creation
Protection attaches the moment the work is fixed in tangible form.
Registration to sue
A federal infringement claim requires a registration in hand.
Timing decides recovery
Statutory damages and fees turn on when you registered.
Enforcement
Takedowns, demand letters, and infringement claims.
Registration is the gate to court
Your copyright exists from the moment the work is fixed — written down, saved, recorded, photographed. What you cannot do with an unregistered work is enforce it. A federal infringement suit requires that the Copyright Office has acted on your application, so registration is not a formality you attend to later; it is the door into the courthouse.
Registration is also a public record of what you made and when, which resolves a surprising share of disputes before anyone files anything.
Timing decides what you can recover
Registering before the infringement begins — or, for a published work, within three months of first publication — preserves the right to elect statutory damages and to ask the court for attorney’s fees. Register after the fact and you are limited to actual damages and the infringer’s profits.
That difference decides whether a case is worth bringing at all. Actual damages on a small work are frequently less than the cost of proving them, which is why late registration quietly converts real infringements into claims nobody can afford to pursue.
Who this is for
Writers, photographers, illustrators, musicians, filmmakers, software developers, agencies, and the businesses that commission them. Software, marketing copy, course material, and design assets are all copyrightable subject matter, and all of them are routinely taken.
Ownership questions deserve attention at the same time. Work created by an employee within the scope of employment generally belongs to the employer; work created by a contractor generally does not, absent a written assignment or a qualifying work-made-for-hire arrangement. That is a contract problem, and it is far cheaper to solve before the work is delivered.
Common questions
Copyright
Do I need to register to own my copyright?
No. Ownership is automatic when the work is fixed. Registration is what makes the copyright enforceable in court and what preserves statutory damages and attorney’s fees.
Does mailing a copy to myself protect me?
No. The “poor man’s copyright” does nothing legally. Only registration with the Copyright Office creates the record that a court requires.
I paid someone to build my app and design my logo. Do I own them?
Not necessarily. Without a written assignment or a qualifying work-made-for-hire arrangement, the person who created the work usually owns it. This is fixed in the contract, not afterward.
Related
Other areas of the practice
Talk it through with an attorney.
A one-hour consultation by video — $300, credited in full toward your flat fee if you move forward. You leave knowing what you need and what it costs.