How Should My Copyright Notice Look

We know that any person who fixes a work in a tangible medium — creates intellectual property — automatically owns a copyright in that work, and we know that to legally prove that ownership, he or she must have a US Copyright Office registration. But what about the copyright symbol, (c), and the copyright notice? Where do they come in? What is the proper use for a copyright notice . . . and is your intellectual property still protected if you don’t have one?

 

Am I legally required to add a copyright symbol to my work?

In fact, no. Back in 1909, when the Copyright Act was passed, copyright protection was only afforded to those works with the copyright symbol physically present. All copyrighted works made between that time and 1976 were required to carry a copyright notice.

Then, with the Copyright Act of 1976, the language was changed and the copyright notice was no longer a requirement in order to be federally protected by copyright.

 

Should I add one anyway?

While the copyright notice and symbol are no longer legally required, the presence of a copyright symbol can serve to ward off would-be copyright infringers.

Don’t misunderstand me here. No, you’re not legally required to include a copyright symbol. You’re just as protected from infringement by federal law as the next person — “But I didn’t know it had a copyright” is not now and has never been a legal defense to infringement. But including a proper copyright notice can have a certain impact in the mind of an intellectual property thief, showing him or her that you’re serious enough about your work to follow the proper precautions and register your work with the copyright office. And if you’re at least that serious about your work, the would-be infringer likely doesn’t want to call your bluff and find out whether or not you’d sue over infringement. They’ll likely move on to seemingly less-engaged targets who have no symbol or notice on their work.

 

How should my copyright notice look?

If you do choose to include a copyright notice on your intellectual property, it will typically follow this format:

Copyright (c) 2011 [Owner's name]. All rights reserved.

And don’t worry about locating the copyright symbol — most word processing programs will automatically convert the (c) into the proper symbol as soon as you hit the space bar.