What Is a Copyright?

InCorp is committed to assisting our clients to form not only the corporation or entity that best serves their business, but also to help keep our clients informed as to other ways to protect their business that you may not have deemed applicable to your particular company. One such aspect is to obtain a U.S. Copyright which is designed to protect certain types of creative work from being used by someone other than the original creator. There are, however, limitations of which you need to be aware.

While a copyright does grant the creator exclusive rights for a product's use and distribution, there is a finite lifetime applied to all copyrights. The copyright is also subject to limitations under copyright laws which include fair use. Typically, the duration of a copyright lasts the span of the creator's life plus 50 to 100 years after the death of the creator. Again, these time limits vary depending on where you reside, so you will absolutely need to inquire as to the length of your copyright when you speak with your legal counsel. It is of critical importance that you consult a lawyer who specializes in copyright law to garner a complete understanding of how a copyright applies to your particular product.

Copyrights are also often territorial, and therefore DO NOT extend beyond a certain area or jurisdiction. While great strides have been made to extend a copyright to a federal copyright and even international copyright agreements, the laws still vary from state to state and country to country.

Your copyright will be filed within the Library of Congress and protect both published and non-published works or inventions that have been documented in detail either on paper, on an electronic medium, or through a prototype. You cannot copyright ideas or concepts for which you have not created tangible proofs-of-concept.

If you have further questions or require the assistance of one of our highly trained experts, contact InCorp today!

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