Anyone with a new invention or process must file for a patent in order to protect his or her ownership and use rights. However, that is not so for new works of art, photos, pictures, songs, books, manuscripts, publications, plays, movies, and shows, among other things. For items of creative expression, copyright is automatic, meaning that nothing needs to be done to claim copyright protection. Although additional rights are provided if the work is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, legal protection is guaranteed once a work is created – which is the day it is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.”
That’s not all that is different between copyrights and other intellectual property protections such as patents and trademarks. That is why this is an area of business about which there are many questions. Why is a creative work automatically copyrighted but not other kinds of inventions? Do copyright protections expire or do they last forever, like a trademark? And what kind of legal protection does copyright offer the average person or business? The answers to these questions help shed light on how people and businesses can protect creative property.
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