In Canada, copyright protects original creative works. Copyright protection is usually found in the following categories of works: literary, dramatic, musical and artistic as well as performer’s performances, sound recordings and communication signals. Owning the copyright to a work allows you to prevent others from producing or reproducing all or a substantial part of your work in any form without your permission.
Although registration of copyright is not required for copyright to subsist in a work in Canada, a certificate of registration provides evidence that your work is protected by copyright and that you are indeed the owner of the work.
There are benefits to registering your work as it provides a form of notice of the existence of your work. Without registration, there are defences available under the Copyright Act that may preclude you from obtaining an award of monetary damages if for example, a defendant can prove it was not aware and had no reasonable ground for suspecting that copyright subsisted in the work that it had copied.
Typically certificates of copyright registration are issued within a few days of the submission of your application. It is therefore a recommended course of action to obtain registration first before having to pursue a claim against others that may be infringing your work.
At Sodagar & Company, we prepare and file copyright registration applications in Canada and though our network of associations, we can arrange to have copyright applications be filed in the United States of America, Europe and other foreign jurisdictions.
The symbol © has a powerful connotation, it represents your work and provides notice to third parties that the work is protected as well as your identity.
At Sodagar & Company, we recognize the time, effort and expense it takes you to create your masterpieces, that is why we work early on with our clients in advising on all types of copyright law issues, including those relating to creation and subsistence of copyright in various works, ownership, infringement, and defences to infringement.