Copyrights protect original creative works such as movies, music, and books. The owner of the copyright enjoys certain exclusive legal protections and the right to benefit financially from their work. Despite the protections afforded by the law, there are many individuals and companies who routinely infringe upon the rights of copyright owners. This often results in the owner of the copyright filing a lawsuit against the party or parties who allegedly infringed. If someone has infringed upon your copyright or you’ve been accused of the same, count on the seasoned counsel of The Keleher Appellate Law Group to guide you.
What Is Copyright?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original creative works that are fixed in a tangible form. Many types of works can be copyrighted, including movies, books, music, paintings, photographs, illustrations, computer programs, architectural works, plays, and more. A work is “original” when it is independently created by a human author and has some degree of creativity. To be fixed in a tangible form means to be captured or exist within a permanent medium, in a way that can be perceived, reproduced, or communicated. Merely having an idea for a novel, for instance, is not enough to meet this standard.
What Rights Do Copyright Owners Enjoy?
Under U.S. copyright law, owners enjoy the exclusive right to:
- Reproduce or make copies of the work
- Produce derivative works based on the original work
- Distribute copies of the work to the public, either by sale or another transfer of ownership
- License, lease, or lend out the copyrighted work
- Perform the work publicly if it is literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic in nature, a pantomime, or a motion picture or other audiovisual work
- Display the work publicly if it is literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic in nature, a pantomime, or a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work (also applies to the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work)
- Perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission, if the work is a sound recording
How Long Does Copyright Protection Last?
The duration of copyright protection depends on when the copyrighted work was created. Works created on or after January 1, 1978, have a copyright term that lasts during the life of the author plus seventy years following the author’s death. If the copyrighted work is a joint work, the term lasts for seventy years following the last surviving author’s death. Meanwhile, for works made for hire and anonymous or pseudonymous works, copyright protection is either 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever is shorter. Works created before 1978 have a different timeframe, and our legal team can advise you if you have questions about these.
What Is Copyright Registration?
Copyright exists from the moment the above conditions (e.g. original work, fixed in a tangible form) are met. However, to enforce one’s rights through litigation, the copyright must be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. This means that to seek monetary damages and attorney’s fees through an infringement lawsuit, copyright registration is a must. When an author registers a copyright, there is also a presumption that the information contained in the registration certificate is accurate.
What Are the Steps in a Copyright Lawsuit?
Filing a lawsuit is usually not the quickest or most cost-effective approach to stopping copyright infringement, so an attorney will instead notify the party in question that infringement has taken place. This is done by sending a formal letter to demand that the party cease further infringement and to request monetary compensation for harm done to the copyright owner.
If the copyright owner knows or has a working relationship with the infringing party, another possible route is to have an informal meeting with the person. There may have been a simple misunderstanding on the part of the infringing party or an accidental infringement. To maintain positive relations with the party, the copyright owner may decide to forego seeking compensation, provided the infringement comes to an end.
Sometimes, formally or informally requesting an end to infringement does not work. The infringing party may take such actions as:
- Ignoring the request, even with a reasonable amount of time allowed for compliance with the demand
- Promising to fulfill the request but continuing to infringe (for instance, failing to remove a copyrighted work for sale online)
- Denying that any infringement has taken place
- Denying the copyright owner’s exclusive rights to the work
- Invoking the fair use doctrine, which allows limited use of copyrighted material for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research
- Claiming that the work is only derivative, which may not be an infringement if it sufficiently differs from the original work
- Claiming that the party is the actual owner of the copyright
At this stage, it may still be possible to convince the infringing party to cease its actions. And the owner might be able to reach an out-of-court resolution, for instance through mediation, to convince the party to stop. This process can be used for any of the above scenarios and as a means to convince the infringing party to compensate the copyright owner for its losses.
If none of these avenues work, then a lawsuit will need to be filed in federal court to cease the infringement and demand monetary damages and attorney’s fees. An experienced copyright attorney should handle this process. A complaint will be filed in the appropriate court and served on the infringing party. That party, the defendant, will probably file a response to the complaint and potentially a counterclaim.
From this point, the case will move forward through discovery (the formal process of exchanging relevant information and evidence between the parties), court motions, hearings, and a trial if necessary. Settlement is always possible and the parties may attempt mediation or another out-of-court approach to try to avoid the time and expense of trial.
Contact Our Chicago Copyright Litigation Attorney
Regardless of which side of a copyright lawsuit you are on, we recognize that the stakes are high. If you are the owner of the copyright, your objective is to put an end to the infringement and to be fairly compensated for pecuniary losses you experienced. Conversely, if you are accused of violating someone else’s copyright protections, you will need robust legal defense to minimize the risk that a court will order you to pay substantial damages. Give The Keleher Appellate Law Group a call today to talk about your case.
The Keleher Appellate Group, LLC, serves clients in Chicago, Denver, St. Louis, and the surrounding areas in Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Colorado. We also provide our services nationwide and internationally.