Software Product Property Rights Registration

Software Product Property Rights Registration at the United States Copyright Office

On November 1961, the United States Copyright Office first registered the software product as a copyright object. Later, the Office started to register software products on a regular basis that has eventually provided the authors with an additional protective instrument.

For more than half a century, authors of software products from around the world have been turning to this authoritative organization for this service in order to obtain independent proof of the fact of creating a software product and the exclusive right of a particular person(s) to this copyright object.

The procedure of registration of software products is carried out by source text deposition (transmission and storage) and issuing a Certificate of Registration with indication of the necessary information, and, no less important it indicates the date of registration of a software product.

Having received the Certificate, the copyright holder will be able to prove that the software product for a specific date belongs to him/her in case of violation of his/her rights. If you need a detailed investigation, you can compare the listing of registered software products with a listing of plagiarism.

When entering the international market with a software product, it is advisable to take care of providing the evidence necessary in case of unauthorized borrowing and initiation of proceedings in court.

Our company works with the United States Copyright Office in order to help authors and other copyright holders register their works in order to provide evidence, if necessary, with legal protection, including in courts.

Software products registration timeframes

The procedure takes 6 months and includes filing an application for registration of a software product, adding it to the Copyright Office database and the issuance of the Certificate in electronic form. Completion the original Certificate and sending it to the addressee requires the same period. Despite the long registration period, a work is considered registered from the moment it is received by the Office. In the case of filing an application through the electronic system, the registration date of the object will coincide in time with the filing date, which will be subsequently indicated in the Certificate.

Registration Objects

In the US Copyright Office, you can register software products and their associated copyright objects:

·        Computer program;

·        Derivative computer program;

·        Software application;

·        HTML

·        Virtual reality environment;

·        Video game;

·        Object Code;

·        Copy of the screen image;

·        CD-ROM

·        Web site;

·        Blog

·        User's manual;

·        Database;

·        Chip layout.

Registration of copyright is available for all elements embodied in a software product. However, you need to understand that ideas, program logic, algorithms, systems, methods, concepts will not be protected by copyright. It means that the author, who registers a software product, protects it from those who duplicate the code, but not from those who write different code to achieve the same or similar result. We are inviting you to visit our specialized website with more detailed information on this topic: http://itlawyer.by/