A copyright gives a person the exclusive right to copy, license, or exploit the intellectual property that embodies a person’s original artistic, literary, musical, dramatic, or creative works as expressed through a tangible medium. An application for copyright registration contains three essential elements: a completed application form, a nonrefundable filing fee, and a nonreturnable deposit—that is, a copy or copies of the work being registered and “deposited” with the Copyright Office.
When the Copyright Office issues a registration certificate, it assigns as the effective date of registration the date it received all required elements in acceptable form, regardless of how long it took to process the application and mail the certificate of registration. The time needed to process applications varies depending on the amount of material the Office is receiving and the method of application.
Infringement Analysis
The Rapacke Law Group offers clients detailed analyses and opinions depicting whether new or contemplated products would infringe upon the intellectual property of another business. Our firm researches and investigates related products or technology, prosecution history of the competition’s designs, and other similar or related registered intellectual properties. Fully analyzing the scope of a competitor’s product allows us to offer clients strategies for developing or introducing new products to avoid giving rise to otherwise inevitable legal battles. For products that are already in existence, our attorneys provide advice on how to proceed to minimize costs and disruption to the business.