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Copyright Assignment

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A Copyright Assignment is a document used when one person owns a copyright to any kind of work (such as a screenplay, novel, painting, or song) and wishes to transfer the ownership of that copyright to another person. Copyright Assignments are most often utilized in situations where the copyright is already registered with the United States Copyright Office, and it's best for both parties to have a memorialized record of the assignment. Often, Copyright Assignments are used when the rights to a work are being given away so that the party receiving the rights may use that work for any purpose they desire.

Copyright Assignments allow the easy transfer of the copyrighted works. They contain all the information needed to record the assignment with the United States Copyright Office , if so desired by either or both of the parties. Recordation with the U.S. Copyright Office isn't strictly necessary, however, though it is a good way to ensure everything flows smoothly with the assignment of the copyright.

How to use this document

This document can be used to transfer the ownership of an existing copyright or when an individual would like an existing copyright transferred to them, as long as the owner agrees. It should be used when both parties understand that the copyright will be completely assigned and wish to create a record of their agreement.

This document will allow the parties to fill in details of the work or works to be transferred, as well as ensure that everything needed for recordation with the U.S. Copyright Office is present. Either party - either the person assigning the copyright or the person receiving the copyright - can fill out this form. Please keep in mind that this form requires both signatures , as well as a notarization.

Applicable law

Copyright Assignments are related to the copyright law of the United States, which is covered by a federal statute called the Copyright Act of 1976.

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A guide to help you: Who Owns a Copyright?

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Copyright Ownership and Assignments - The Basics

Copyright Assignments – When You Need Them and When to Record Them

In modern business, an entity’s most important asset is often its intellectual property, which includes copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade dress, trade secrets, and other proprietary information and content belonging to the entity. However, before an entity can enforce or protect those assets, it must show it is the owner of the asset in question. In the case of copyrights, only “the legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under a copyright is entitled … to institute an action for any infringement of that particular right.” 17 U.S.C. § 501(b). See also Well Cell Glob. LLC v. Calvit, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204742 at *6 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 10, 2022) (assignment was not complete until all payments were made pursuant to same and holder of assignment did not yet own the copyrights and, therefore, lacked ownership and standing to bring suit to enforce).

Do You Need a Copyright Assignment?

Under the law, copyright ownership “vests initially in the author or authors of the work,” that is, “the party who actually creates the work … [or] translates an idea into a fixed, tangible expression.” 17 U.S.C. § 201(a); Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 737, 109 S. Ct. 2166, 2171 (1989). A copyright assignment is an important medium for transferring legal ownership of a copyright from the initial holder, who may transfer all or a portion  of their rights in the original work to a third-party. These rights include all those inherent to copyright ownership, including the rights to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords, prepare derivative works, distribute the work, and publicly display or perform the copyrighted work.

Copyright assignments are especially important when a work is created in the context of independent contractors who create (or participate in the creation) of an original work. Because ownership automatically vests in the author or creator of the work, entities must be thorough in securing a written assignment of copyright from independent contractors in the initial stages of creation so that the parties are clear as to who actually owns the copyrighted work and has standing to enforce (i.e., protect ) the copyrights in and to the work.

Copyright assignments also come into play when one entity (or individuals) purchases another entity. The express transfer of all intellectual property from the selling entity to the purchaser(s), including any and all copyrights owned by the seller, are important to ensure a transfer of ownership of the copyrights in connection with the sale.

And while not all copyright assignments are required to be in writing (though most are), it is recommended a written agreement be put place in all cases.

Does Your Agreement Need to Be In Writing?

As noted above, while it is always advisable that copyright assignments be in writing, there are some instances in which a written agreement is not required and an oral agreement could be enforced. However, anytime a copyright owner/holder transfers an exclusive right in that copyright, the assignment must be in writing. This would include situations where the author/owner of a copyright in a book assigns to a third party the right to distribute and sell that book or where a copyright license is issued, as between an author and publishing company.

The transfer of non-exclusive rights, however, may not be required to be in writing. For example, if an author grants a non-exclusive right to a movie company to develop his or her book into a movie, such an agreement may not be required to be in writing. Nevertheless, it is always advisable to secure any copyright assignment in writing to avoid further challenges to ownership.

What Are the “Next Steps” Once You Have Your Assignment?

As a matter of course, it can be helpful to file any copyright assignments with the U.S. Copyright Office through their online portal. While filing in the Copyright Office certainly is not mandatory, it is advisable and can offer certain legal benefits, including providing constructive notice of the change in ownership and conferring priority of ownership among conflicting assignments or claims of ownership. Such filing also establishes a public record of the contents of the assignment and registers a security interest in the copyright. In conjunction with filing the assignment with the Copyright Office, you will need to pay a filing fee for recording the assignment.

Possibility of Termination of Assignment – What to Know

One final issue to keep in mind is that a copyright assignment can be terminated by the author of an original work by following certain statutory requirements. These termination provisions are set forth in 17 U.S.C. §§ 203, 304(c), and 304(d), with the applicable provision depending on a number of factors, including when the assignment was made, who executed it, and when a copyright was originally secured for the work. Importantly, works assigned via a will or involving a work made for hire may not be terminated under these provisions. Of those assignments that can be terminated, termination may only occur during a specific statutory window of time and must specify the date that the termination goes into effect. The effective date must fall within a five-year “termination period,” which is based on factors set forth in 17 U.S.C. §§ 203, 304(c), or 304(d), as applicable. The notice must be served no less than two years and no more than ten years before the termination effective date and must be recorded with the Copyright Office before the effective date.

Key Takeaways on Copyright Assignments

Copyright ownership vests in the original author at creation. For any third party to own or enforce a copyright, a properly executed copyright assignment must be made. The basics for copyright ownership and enforcement include:

Document a copyright assignment to clearly define rights and ownership;

Obtain a registration of the copyright to be able to litigate against infringement and record the copyright assignment as a best practice; and

Be aware of the potential for assignment termination by the author under specific circumstances.

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Managing Rights

Consolidation of Rights | Assignment | Licensing | Enforcement

Copyright is a valuable intellectual property which requires managing that copyright asset over time. Managing copyright means:

• Controlling how a work is used by others
• Granting permissions and licenses
• Responsibilities for the life of the copyright

The creation of new copyrighted works in the University raises complex copyright questions with respect to ownership of the new materials. It can be a daunting task to sort out authors from other contributors, establishing whether works are works made for hire or independent efforts, and considering whether a work is a joint work, a compilation, a derivative work, or it uses pre-existing content.

Without agreements to consolidate or transfer rights, copyright law will determine copyright ownership. Copyright owners, whether individual authors or University of Washington, may find they have insufficient rights to make it possible to share, publish, and disseminate the work as they desire.

Once rights are established, rights are transferred only by an agreement and are generally enforced through litigation.

Consolidation of Rights

When you are preparing a work with many copyright elements and many contributors, you need to consolidate the rights with the entity that is going to publish or disseminate the work. Consolidation of rights:

• Clarifies ownership
• Ensures publication
• Identifies party responsible for work

Benefits of consolidation

Having your rights consolidated shows potential publishers or distributors that the project managers can manage risk and are prepared for the product’s future.

When there is clarity regarding the copyright rights for each project, it is easier to stop others from producing content which is too similar, easier to create relationships with those interested in the project, and easier to control the product’s quality. 

Without identifying ownership of particular elements, it is difficult to ensure the project can be released.

How to consolidate rights

The consolidation of rights is accomplished through either an assignment of copyright, which transfers ownership of the work to another, or through a license, which grants permission to use a work in a certain way. Both assignments and licenses are part of creating works within a university setting.

Creators may be asked to assign rights in scholarly work to a publisher so that the work may be published. Alternately, creators may be asked to grant a license to the University to use work you own in a project.

Consolidation and UW copyright

You may be asked to transfer your copyright to the University if, as defined under UW Copyright Policy, you used University staff, resources or funding, or the University has obligations to provide such materials as required elements under a grant, contract, or other award.

Creators and consolidation

If it is determined that rights should be consolidated with the University, the creator of the work retains a say in how the work is used, credit for having prepared the work, and in most cases, a share of any royalties that may be generated if the work is commercialized.

When you are working on this type of project, you may be asked to sign a participation agreement that will clarify your rights and responsibilities on a particular project.

An assignment is a transfer of the ownership of the copyright.

Assignment of copyright transfers ownership to another person or entity. Assignment may also prevent you from using that work, even if you were the original author.

A way to visualize assignment of copyright is to analogize the process to that of selling your house. You may have built the home and lived in the home for a period of time and had all the rights to permit or exclude visitors to your home, but once the home is sold you know longer have the rights of ownership of that particular home.

The impact of assignment of a copyright work is that you no longer own it and therefore cannot freely use it. If you assign the rights in your work to a publisher, you give up any ownership interests you have in the work.

By assigning the copyright, if you want to include a significant part of the work in a course pack for one of your courses, or in a later publication, you will need to get permission from the publisher. This may mean you will possibly have to pay royalties to use what you authored. Since a copyright lasts for at least 70 years, even if your book goes out of print, you cannot reproduce it without permission.

Be cautious in assigning copyright to publishers and external entities. Make sure that you will be able to accomplish what you want in the future with the work you created.

Licensing is a business arrangement in which one party authorizes another party use of intellectual property and the terms that use might entail.

Licensing of intellectual property allows:

• Publication

A license is a grant of permission to use a work in a manner that would otherwise infringe a copyright if the permission were not given. Licenses are used by copyright owners to allow others to copy, distribute, adapt, perform or display a copyright work.

How you license a work usually depends on what you are trying to achieve. Licenses can be very broad and grant a number of rights, or they can grant limited rights for limited times. For example, you could grant a publisher the right to use your work in a printed journal, but not grant the right to use the work online. You might grant someone the right to make and distribute copies of a work in a certain class, but not for its use in commercial ventures.

Matching license to goals

By carefully constructing licenses, the owner of a work can control how a work is used and achieve the maximum impact for the work. By thinking through what your goals are for the work, you can match the license rights to achieve your goals.

Some ideas for matching license rights and goals:

• License by format, distribution, or market. It may be desirable to break up licenses by format and medium of deployment as well as by market sector. This serves the objective of broad dissemination of the results of research and fulfils both academic and public service objectives.
• Retain update rights. It may also be desirable to retain control over updates and improvements of the work to ensure that the work maintains academic integrity and represents authors and the University appropriately.

UW CoMotion

UW CoMotion manages and pursues licensing arrangements if the University owns or has an interest in a copyrighted work. Licensing a work usually comes with some risk and entails University time and resources to negotiate with potential developers or users of the work, maintain the relationship, and manage the rights and financial arrangements. For more information about this process, contact UW CoMotion .

Public domain

Works that have been released to “Public Domain” are available free of charge and have no restrictions on who uses them or how they are used. Anyone can create proprietary products from works that are in Public Domain. In addition, works in Public Domain can be edited, revised, or sold without notice to the author(s).

Works that are no longer within the statutory protection of copyright are in Public Domain. For information on statutory time limits under the Copyright Act, see the section on Determining Copyright Status .

"Open Source" software code

Some software developers use an “Open Source” model for sharing their software with others. There are many varieties of Open Source licenses. Generally, an Open Source license requires free distribution of the software and distribution of the source code.

Open Source is not the same thing as Public Domain. Public Domain works are not copyrighted; Open Source works are copyrighted and the terms of their use are covered by a license.

Open Source licenses generally fall into two categories:

• “Permissive” require that the software be distributed for free and come with a permission to redistribute and modify the code. There are distinctions between the Permissive licenses which are articulated here .
• “Copyleft licenses” require that in addition to being distributed for free, any modifications to the software are also distributed for free. The most common “Copyleft license” is the GNU General Public License (or “GPL”). GNU’s homepage on Copyleft is located here .

Enforcement

Copyrights are enforced through:

• Copyright registration
• Controlling use

If you own the copyright in a work, you may sue anyone who violates any of your exclusive rights for damages. Unfortunately, lawsuits are expensive and unless you are making a lot of money from your work, you may find the cost of litigation in federal court may greatly exceed the amount of damages you could recover. 

However in 2020, Congress passed the Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act (CASE Act) which directed the Copyright Office to establish the Copyright Claims Board (“CCB”). For copyright disputes under $30,000, the CCB may be a preferred approach in dispute resolution. 

Registration and litigation

To preserve the right to sue infringers, you need to file a copyright registration on your work with the U.S. Copyright Office. Registration can be filed any time up to three months after an infringement has occurred. However, you can recover greater damages in a lawsuit if you have registered your work prior to infringement.

Since lawsuits are not always practical, you should consider other means of ensuring your work is used by others in accordance with your wishes. The best method for enforcing your rights is through controlling how others may access your work or establishing ground rules for use in a license.

Published By Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

Copyright ownership and transfers faqs.

When performing copyright research, you may have questions about copy­right rules or terminology. For example, you may uncover a registration indicating the work is “made for hire,” or you may find a document indicating that the copyright has been “reclaimed” by the author. Below are some answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about copyright ownership and transfers.

Ignore Heading – Content

Ignore heading – sub heading content, ignore heading – sub table content, what is a work made for hire.

Usually, the person who creates a work is also the initial owner of the copy­right in the work. But this isn’t always the case. Under some circumstances, a person who pays another to create a work becomes the initial copyright owner, not the person who actually created it. The resulting works are called “works made for hire” (or sometimes simply “works for hire”). There are two distinct types of work that will be classified as made for hire:

• a work created by an employee within the scope of employment, or
• a commissioned work that falls within a certain category of works and that is the subject of a written agreement. (The types of works that qualify and other relevant requirements are explained in more detail in Chapter 15.)

If the work qualifies under one of these two methods, the person paying for the work (the hiring party) is the author and copyright owner. If you want to use the work, you should seek permission from the employer or hiring party, not the person who created the work. If in doubt, you may be able to determine work-for-hire status by examining the copyright registration.

What Is a Transfer of Title?

The person who owns a copyright is sometimes referred to as having “title” to the copyright. A “title” is the document that establishes ownership to property, like the title to your car or house. But even in the absence of an official document, the owner of a copyright is often said to have title to it.

Just like title to your car or house, title to a copyright can be sold or otherwise transferred. A person or company can have ownership (title) of a copyright transferred to it by means of an assignment (a sale in which all or part of a copyright is transferred) or through a will or bankruptcy proceedings. Since title to a copyright can be transferred, you may have to search copyright records to determine the current owner of a work you want to use.

There are two ways to determine if copyright ownership has been transferred: by reviewing the copyright registration certificate issued by the Copyright Office, or by locating an assignment or transfer agreement. By reviewing the copyright registration certificate, you can find out who currently claims copyright and on what basis. For example, if a publisher has been assigned copyright to a work, it will file a copyright registration in its own name and indicate on the registration that it acquired copyright through a legal transfer. Also, many companies file the agreement that establishes the assignment, license, or transfer with the Copyright Office. For example, if an artist assigned his work to a company, the company could file the assignment document with the Copyright Office.

What Is a Termination of a Transfer?

Sometimes an author transfers copyright to someone and then later the author reacquires it through a process known as “terminating a transfer.” Copyright laws provide a method by which authors can reclaim rights after a number of years. This termination and reclamation process is complex, and the rules differ depending on when the work was first published. As a very general rule, transfer terminations occur between 28 and 56 years after the first publication. Terminations are filed with the Copyright Office and can be located by researching Copyright Office records.

For more information on terminations of transfers, see Chapter 9 of The Copyright Handbook by attorney Stephen Fishman (Nolo).

What If More Than One Person Owns a Copyright?

A common question is whom to ask for permission if several people jointly own a copyright. Co-ownership of copyright can occur in various ways. 
For example, if:

• two people jointly create a work
• the author transfers portions of the rights to different people 
(for example, giving half to each child), or
• the author sells a portion of the copyright to someone and keeps 
the remainder.

Co-owners of copyright have a legal status known as “tenants in common.” When a co-owner dies, his or her share goes to his or her beneficiaries or heirs, not to the other co-owner. Each co‑owner has an independent right to use or non exclusively license the work—provided that he or she accounts to the other co‑owners for any profits. What this means for our purposes is that if you obtain the permission of any one co-owner, you can use the work. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule, as explained in the next section.

You can determine whether there is co-ownership of a certain work by reviewing Copyright Office documents. For example, a registration for a song might indicate that a composer and a lyricist co-own a song.

When Must You Get Multiple Permissions?

There are several situations in which you must obtain permission from all the co-owners of a work instead of just one. All co-owners must consent to an assignment of the work (a transfer of copyright ownership) or to an exclusive license (an agreement granting rights solely to one person).

Is There a Difference Between an Author and a Copyright Owner?

The author is the first owner of copyright. The author is either the creator of the work or the person who employs someone to create the work (see work-for-hire rules discussed above). Many authors do not retain their copyright ownership; they sell or transfer it to someone else in return for a lump sum payment or periodic payment known as a royalty. In this way, the author and copyright owner (sometimes referred to as “copyright claimant”) may be two different people. Even if you do not know the name of the current copyright owner, knowing the name of the author will help you find the owner in the Copyright Office records.

What If a Work Does Not Contain a Copyright Notice?

It’s common to start copyright research by examining the copyright notice. However, in some cases, the notice may be missing from the work. One reason you may not find a notice is because notice is not required on works first published after March 1, 1989. In addition, for works published prior to that date, notice is required only on visually perceptible copies—that is, copies that can be seen directly or with the aid of a device such as a film projector. Printed books, paintings, drawings, films, architecture, and computer programs are all visually perceptible. However, some works are not visually perceptible, such as a song on a compact disc. But copyright notice would be required if the song lyrics were printed on the album cover.

Another reason that a work may not include notice is that the owner failed to affix it, which may result in the loss of copyright. For works first published before 1978, for example, the absence of a copyright notice from a published copy generally indicates that the work is not protected by copyright. The absence of notice on works published between January 1, 1978 and March 1, 1989 may or may not result in the loss of copyright, depending on whether the owner corrected the error within five years of the publication and met other copyright law requirements.

What If There Is a Copyright Notice for an Entire Magazine but Not for the Specific Article You Want to Use?

If a story or a photograph is used in a magazine, there may be a copyright notice for the magazine but not for the specific story or photo that you want to use. That’s because the owners of magazines, anthologies, or greatest hits collections in which many different copyrighted works are collected (referred to as “collective works”) can use one copyright notice to protect all the works in the collection. This does not necessarily mean that the magazine owns the copyright in all of the works. It may or may not, depending on the contract with the author or photographer. Copyright Office research may not necessarily help you locate copyright information for these works because they may not be listed separately by title in the records. You may be better off contacting the owner of the collective work directly. The principles for contacting copyright owners are explained in the chapters dealing with specific media (text, artwork, photographs, and so on).

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Assignment of Copyright – Explained With Modes and Disputes

Original work may not be reproduced, distributed, or sold by anybody other than the copyright owner without that owner’s consent. As a result, the law allows the copyright owner to assign ownership to a third party.

The term “copyright assignment” describes the transfer of ownership or rights in a work that has been granted copyright from the original copyright holder (the “ assignor “) to a different party (the “ assignee “). Through a legal procedure, the assignor gives up their ownership of the work and gives the assignee the only authority to reproduce, distribute, display, perform, or alter it.

This article discusses the concept of copyright assignment, which involves the transfer of ownership or rights in a copyrighted work from the original copyright holder (assignor) to another party (assignee). The article also explains the various aspects of copyright assignment, including its mode of assignment and disputes with respect to the assignment of copyright.

Assignment of Copyright

(Section 18 of the Copyright Act, 1957 )

The owner of the current work or the potential owner of the future work may assign the copyright. It may be fully or partially allocated. Limitations may apply to all or a portion of the copyright.

Additionally, if future work is assigned, the assignment will become effective when the new work is created. In future works, “assignee” includes the assignee’s legal representative if they die before the work is created.

The court ruled in  Saregama India Ltd. vs Suresh Jindal And Ors.  that the copyright owner to a future work has the right to assign the copyright, in whole or in part, to a third party. This indicates that the owner may assign the copyright ownership for the entire term or only a portion.

The assignee is regarded as the legal owner of the copyright after the assignment is made, and the Copyright Act recognises all associated rights and benefits. As mentioned above, the ruling affirms that copyright ownership can be transferred by assignment, enabling people or organisations to obtain and exercise control over the rights connected to the copyrighted work.

Mode of Assignment of Copyright

(Section 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957)

Every assignment of the copyright to a work must be made in writing and be signed by the assignor or an authorised representative. Only that assignment will be accepted. Any assigned work must include all relevant information, including the assignment, length, rights, and geographic scope.

The amount of any royalties or other payments made to the author or his legal heirs during the assignment should also be specified. Any revisions, extensions, or terminations of the assignment are subject to the mutually agreed-upon terms and circumstances.

Let’s say the assignee fails to utilise the right granted during the assignment within a year of receiving it. If such a thing occurs, the assignment of those rights will be presumed to have terminated unless otherwise specified in the assignment. When the assignment time and geographical scope are not specified, they will be assumed to be five years from the date of the assignment and inside India, respectively.

The Bombay High Court considered whether the assignment of video rights included the right of satellite transmission in the case of  Video Master vs Nishi Production . The court accepted the defendant’s claim that several public communication channels, such as satellite broadcasting, video TV, and terrestrial television broadcasting, each constituted a distinct copyright.

As a result, the film’s owner may transfer these rights to other people or companies. The court concluded that the video copyright granted to the plaintiff was separate from the copyright for the satellite transmission of the movie. Consequently, the satellite broadcast right was not part of the assignment.

Disputes With Respect to the Assignment of Copyright

(Section 19A of the Copyright Act, 1957)

After receiving a complaint from the assignor and completing an investigation, the appellate board has the authority to revoke the assignment or issue any orders it sees suitable when the assignee fails to execute the powers granted to him if such failure is not a result of any action or inaction on the part of the assignor.

If the assignor is also the author, the appellate board should hold off on issuing any revocation unless it is established that the terms of the assignment are harsh to the assignor. Additionally, no revocation may be made for five years if an assignment has been made.

The appellate board should handle copyright assignment complaints promptly and with diligence. They have a time limit of six months from the date of receiving the complaint to reach a final decision. If, for any reason, there is a delay beyond this period, the appellate board must explain the reasons for the delay. The goal is to ensure that copyright disputes are resolved promptly and transparently.

In this evolving world, copyright assignment is an unavoidable need. People are not always able to rely on themselves. The ownership of the work must be transferred to properly frame the art and realise the original piece’s full creative potential.

Furthermore, copyright assignment aids in the seamless development of the creative process when several creative minds collaborate or when a work is adapted across various media. It allows for fresh viewpoints, interpretations, and variations that could improve the original work or investigate other creative paths.

Read Next: Doctrine of Merger Under Copyright Law

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• THIS IS AN ADVERISEMENT

Copyright Assignment (Transfer Ownership of a Copyright)

General information.

A copyright assignment is the transfer of one’s ownership of a copyrighted work to another person or entity. The prior owner (assignor) gives up all rights to the work to the new owner (assignee). The assignee gains all rights to the work as the legal or beneficial owner and may take legal action to prevent infringing uses of the work, etc. Copyright Act Section 501(b) .

According to federal law, a voluntary transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless the details of the conveyance are contained in a writing signed by the copyright owner or the owner’s authorized agent. Copyright Act Section 204(a) .

Purpose/Necessity

An assignment may be used:

• After a business is sold and the work’s rights are transferred to the purchaser
• As security for a debt (through a mortgage or other security interest)
• As a bequest in a will or an asset passed to heirs by intestacy/probate
• As part of the distribution of assets following a bankruptcy proceeding
• The work’s owner retains ownership but changes his or her name
• The work’s owner retains ownership but changes its business name or entity type
• Any other instance where the owner of a work wishes to transfer it to another

Recording an assignment is not mandatory to assign the interest bur provides the following advantages:

• Recording the transfer establishes a public record of the details of the transfer and the contents of the document affecting the transfer. Such details will appear in the Copyright Office’s online public catalog .
• The document or material attached to it specifically identifies the work to which it pertains so that, after the document is indexed by the Register of Copyrights, it would be revealed by a reasonable search under title or registration number of the work; and
• Registration has been made for the work.
• Constructive notice means that the public is deemed to have knowledge of the facts stated in the document – including those speaking to the ownership of rights – and cannot claim otherwise.
• Under Sections 205d and 205e of the Copyright Act , recording establishes priority of rights as between conflicting assignments/transfers of ownership, or between a conflicting assignment and a nonexclusive license. This means that the first recorded assignment will be taken as valid as against any later alleged assignments.
• In some instances, recording may be necessary to validate the transfer of copyrights as against third parties. Copyright Office – Circular 1: Copyright Basics .
• In some states, recording may be necessary to perfect a security interest. Copyright Office – Circular 12: Recordation of Transfers and Other Documents .

Frequently Asked Questions

• Once a work is created and fixed in a tangible form, the author (or the author’s employer if the work was a Work Made for Hire), gains certain rights to the copyrighted work. The author has the exclusive right to: •  Reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords; •  Prepare derivative works based upon the work; •  Distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public; and •  Perform or display the work publicly.The author may subsequently transfer all or part of these rights through an (permanent) assignment or a (temporary) license. Copyright Act Section 201(d)(2) . Following negotiations between the parties as to the terms of the transfer, a written document must be signed by the owner of the rights conveyed stating the particular rights to be conveyed.
• An assignment does not alter the work’s copyright duration. The assignee gains all rights transferred for the remainder of the copyright in effect. For works created by a single author, the length of copyright is the life of the author plus 70 years. Copyright Act Section 302(a) .
• According to the Copyright Act, a copyright may be transferred by any means of conveyance, including bequeath by will or pass through intestate succession. Copyright Act Section 201(d)(1) . Some types of documents that may suffice include an assignment, mortgage, contract, deed, or promissory note.If you use our firm to assist you in your copyright assignment, we review your document to ensure that it conveys the rights desired, and then record it with the Copyright Office to establish a public record. Alternatively, if you do not have an existing document of transfer, we can draft a document to meet your purposes and then complete the recording process.
• The Copyright Office does not provide a form or example of an acceptable document which effects a copyright transfer. Copyright Office FAQ – Assignment/Transfer of Copyright Ownership . The Copyright Office does not examine documents for legal sufficiency for their intended purpose prior to recording. Furthermore, the fee to record a document with the Copyright Office is nonrefundable. Copyright Office – Circular 12: Recordation of Transfers and Other Documents .It is therefore important to consult with an attorney knowledgeable about copyright assignments to ensure that the copyrighted work(s) in question actually transfer as desired.
• No, the rights given by copyright are the author’s immediately upon fixing the work in a tangible medium of expression. These rights may be transferred through a written instrument and the Copyright Office will record such an instrument before or after the work has been registered with the Copyright Office. Copyright Act Section 205(a) . However, there are several important benefits of copyright registration, and it is helpful to register the work so that the recorded assignment references a work indexed in the Copyright Office’s records .
• No, essentially for the same reasons, copyrights may be transferred whether or not the underlying work has been published. The Copyright Office will record a document evidencing a transfer of an unpublished work. Copyright Office – Circular 12: Recordation of Transfers and Other Documents .

Legal Services Offered and Cost

Recording of Copyright Assignment Note: this service is for copyright holders who have already transferred their copyright through a written instrument but have not yet filed/recorded the instrument Legal fees: $300 flat fee This includes:

• Review of client’s information to ensure legal requirements are fulfilled
• Answer client questions, make corrections, and obtain additional information as needed
• Review of copyright assignment document to ensure proper transfer is made
• Completion of Copyright Recordation Document Cover Sheet
• Submission of the assignment document, Cover Sheet, and filing fee with the Copyright Office
• Email confirmation of copyright assignment recording by the Copyright Office with official Certificate of Recordation

If you are ready to get started, please CLICK HERE to enter basic information using our secure online form.

Drafting and Recording of Copyright Assignment Legal fees: $300 flat fee

This includes:

• Completion of copyright assignment document to make the assignment

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Copyright basics

Copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship. In today’s global digital economy, artists, authors, and companies have unprecedented opportunities to disseminate their creative works and products to a worldwide audience. They also face daunting challenges from infringement and piracy. To take advantage of these opportunities and to respond to the challenges, creators and creative industries depend more than ever on their ability to protect and enforce their copyrights.

In order to understand the importance of copyright and how to protect it, it is important to examine the basics of copyright law: what it is, what it protects, and how to secure it. The primary purpose behind copyright law is to foster the creation and dissemination of works for the benefit of the public. By granting authors the exclusive right to authorize certain uses of their works, copyright provides economic incentives to create new works and to make them available in the marketplace.

This overarching goal is stated in the U.S. Constitution, Article I section 8, clause 8, “The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

This language gives Congress broad authority to advance knowledge (“Science” in 18th century parlance) by providing authors with certain exclusive rights over their works for limited times.

The framers of the Constitution were convinced that the dissemination of knowledge was of critical importance to the new nation and that establishing a national copyright system was an efficient means to advance that goal.

More than 200 years later, the purpose of U.S. copyright law remains fundamentally the same: to provide the economic incentives for creativity that ultimately promote the public welfare. The Supreme Court put it this way in its 1975 decision in Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken : “The immediate effect of our copyright law is to secure a fair return for an ‘author’s’ creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good” [ Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken , 422 U.S. 151, 156 (1975)].

Copyright protects markets for American creative works not only in the United States, but also internationally. The United States is a party to several international agreements establishing minimum standards of copyright protection that member countries must adopt. These agreements—which include the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty , the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty , and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)—help to ensure that American creators have adequate legal protections against infringement of their works in foreign countries.

A copyright is a federally granted property right that protects rights holders from certain unauthorized uses of their original works of authorship. The subject matter eligible for protection is set forth in the Copyright Act of 1976 . Copyrightable works include literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as books, plays, music, lyrics, paintings, sculptures, video games, movies, sound recordings, and software.

To be eligible for protection under the Copyright Act, a work must be fixed in a “tangible medium of expression.” A literary work, for example, can be fixed in a book or on the back of an envelope. A musical work can be fixed in sheet music, on tape, or in a digital file. A work of visual art can be fixed on a canvas, and a sculptural work in stone.

Copyright protection does not extend to ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discoveries. Copyright protects only the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. This principle, sometimes called the “idea-expression dichotomy,” ensures that protection will extend only to the original elements that the author has contributed to a work, not to the work’s underlying ideas, which remain freely available to the public.

Under the Copyright Act, a copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the work (or to authorize others to do so). In the case of sound recordings, the copyright owner has the right to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission. These exclusive rights are freely transferable, and may be licensed, sold, donated to charity, or bequeathed to heirs.

Limitations and exceptions

The exclusive rights of copyright are limited in a number of important ways. It has long been recognized that properly crafted limitations on the exclusive rights of copyright owners help to fulfill copyright’s basic goal by allowing the use of copyrighted works for certain publicly beneficial purposes.

International copyright agreements to which the United States is a party set forth a number of specific exceptions and limitations that member states may recognize. Any additional exceptions or limitations must satisfy the so-called “three-step” test, which provides that a permitted use must (1) be limited to “certain special cases,” (2) “not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work,” and (3) “not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.”

U.S. copyright law contains numerous exceptions and limitations to the exclusive rights of copyright owners, including in the following areas:

• Library and archival copying
• Educational and nonprofit broadcasting for purposes of distance learning
• Nonprofit live performances and displays
• Reproductions for visually impaired persons
• Making copies of computer programs for archival and/or maintenance purposes

In addition, section 107 of the Copyright Act codifies the doctrine of fair use, which permits certain other uses that are not covered by a specific statutory exception. While the doctrine is flexible and case-specific, section 107 sets forth an illustrative list of the types of uses that generally are considered appropriate for a finding of fair use. These include uses for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. In determining whether a particular use is a fair use, section 107 specifies four factors that courts must consider: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

While many people believe that you must register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office before you can claim a copyright, no registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure a copyright. A copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, as long as the work contains a sufficient degree of originality, and a work comes into being when it is fixed in a “copy or a phonorecord for the first time.” This is consistent with the Berne Convention, which states that the “enjoyment and exercise” of copyright “shall not be subject to any formality.”

Although registration with the Copyright Office is not required to secure protection, it does provide a number of benefits:

• Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
• Registration is necessary before an infringement suit may be filed in court (for works of U.S. origin).
• If made before or within 5 years of publication, registration establishes prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the registration certificate.
• If registration is made within 3 months after first publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney’s fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
• Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.

To register a claim to copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, the claimant must: (1) submit a properly completed application; (2) pay a nonrefundable fee; and (3) deposit the required number of copies of the works to be registered.

The international minimum standard for the protection of copyright, as set forth in the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement , is the life of the author plus another 50 years. Berne Union members are free to exceed the minimum standard. The United States, the European Union, and a number of other countries have elected to do so.

Under current U.S. law, for works created by individual authors on or after January 1, 1978, copyright protection begins with the creation of the work and lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

For anonymous works or pseudonymous works (if the name of the author is not revealed), and for works made for hire, copyright lasts for 95 years from the date of first publication, or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first. The copyright in joint works lasts for the life of the last surviving author plus 70 years.

There is no such thing as an “international copyright” that will automatically protect an author’s works in countries around the world. Instead, copyright protection is territorial in nature, which means that copyright protection depends on the national laws where protection is sought. However, most countries are members of the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement, which provide important protections for foreign authors.

Under these agreements, a member country generally must afford the nationals of other member states no less favorable copyright protection than it provides its own nationals. This bedrock principle of international copyright law is called “national treatment.”

U.S. Copyright Office

The United States Copyright Office registers copyright claims, records information about copyright ownership, provides information to the public about copyright, and assists Congress and other parts of the government on a wide range of copyright issues.

• View copyright registration tutorials
• View a video on the copyright registration process and its benefits to creators
• Browse the Copyright Office’s Circulars to learn more about copyright

STOPfakes.gov

STOPfakes.gov is a one-stop shop for U.S. government tools and resources on intellectual property rights, including copyright. The federal agencies behind STOPfakes.gov have developed a number of resources to educate and assist businesses—particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as consumers, government officials, and the general public—on how to protect and enforce their intellectual property rights. Visit STOPfakes.gov to learn more.

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FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup 2024™

International Transfer Snapshot (mid-year 2024)

Methodology.

All transfer data provided in this report relates exclusively to international transfers of professional football players within the scope of 11-a-side football. The numbers that feature in this report have been rounded. All data is based on individual transaction data provided directly by football clubs and associations in the FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS).

Reporting period

Transfer data has been analysed for all transfers between 1 June 2024 and 2 September 2024. The data is updated daily. When making comparisons with previous years, we used the interval from 1 June to the last day of the official registration period of most European associations, i.e. 5 October for 2020, 31 August for 2021 and 1 September for 2022 and 2023.

Transfer date

For the purposes of this report, the transfer date is defined as either the date on which the engaging association requested the International Transfer Certificate (ITC) or, if the transfer does not require an ITC, as the date on which the transfer first reached one of the four completed statuses in TMS (“Closed”, “Closed – awaiting payments”, “On loan – awaiting conclusion”, “On loan – awaiting payments”). Only transfers with a transfer date within the reporting period are included in the report.

Pending transfers

For the purposes of this report, we distinguish between completed and pending transfers. A transfer is considered completed if it has reached one of the four completed statuses in TMS (see Transfer date above). Pending transfers are transfers for which the ITC was requested by the player’s new association before the end of the reporting period, but the ITC has not yet been received and the player has not yet been registered by the new association and their status in TMS is one of “Awaiting ITC delivery”, “Awaiting ITC receipt”, “Awaiting response to rejection of ITC request”, “Awaiting confirmation of provisional registration”, “Awaiting registration confirmation”, “The ITC request has been rejected by the former association and the rejection has been disputed by the new association”, “Awaiting judgment” or “Awaiting notification of decision”.

Transfer fees

All references to transfer fees in this report are to the sum of all fixed, conditional and release (buyout) fees as declared in TMS. All fees are treated as upfront payments for calculation purposes, notwithstanding any instalment plans that may be agreed by clubs. All amounts are automatically converted into USD based on the conversion rate on the day when the transfer instruction was entered in TMS. The aggregate amounts of transfer fees spent and received are shown for each confederation and association unless the clubs from the respective region completed only one incoming or outgoing transfer that included a transfer fee.

Transfer types

We distinguish between four types of international transfers:

Out of contract: when players who are no longer contractually bound to any former club sign an employment contract with a new club in a different association and no transfer agreement between clubs has been signed.

Loan: when players are temporarily engaged by a new club: a) on the basis of a loan agreement between the club with which they have an employment contract and a club of another association, during the term of their employment contract with their parent club; or b) when the loan is extended by the new club with the agreement of the parent club.

Return from loan: when players return to their parent club after a loan spell at another club.

Permanent: when players are permanently engaged by a new club and a transfer agreement is signed between the new club and the former club, or when a club permanently engages players it has had on loan, with the agreement of the former club.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression . In copyright law, there are a lot of different types of works, including paintings, photographs, illustrations, musical compositions, sound recordings, computer programs, books, poems, blog posts, movies, architectural works, plays, and so much more!

Copyright is originality and fixation

Original works.

Works are original when they are independently created by a human author and have a minimal degree of creativity. Independent creation simply means that you create it yourself, without copying. The Supreme Court has said that, to be creative, a work must have a “spark” and “modicum” of creativity. There are some things, however, that are not creative, like: titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; and mere listings of ingredients or contents. And always keep in mind that copyright protects expression, and never ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, or discoveries.

Fixed Works

A work is fixed when it is captured (either by or under the authority of an author) in a sufficiently permanent medium such that the work can be perceived, reproduced, or communicated for more than a short time. For example, a work is fixed when you write it down or record it.

“Congress shall have Power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

— United States Constitution

Article I, Section 8

Copyright has been a part of U.S. law since the nation’s founding. Congress passed the first federal copyright law in 1790, and has updated it throughout the years to keep up with the times. Our copyright timeline explains more of copyright’s history.

Who is a copyright owner?

Everyone is a copyright owner . Once you create an original work and fix it, like taking a photograph, writing a poem or blog, or recording a new song, you are the author and the owner.

Companies, organizations, and other people besides the work’s creator can also be copyright owners. Copyright law allows ownership through “works made for hire,” which establishes that works created by an employee within the scope of employment are owned by the employer. The work made for hire doctrine also applies to certain independent contractor relationships, for certain types of commissioned works.

Copyright ownership can also come from contracts like assignments or from other types of transfers like wills and bequests.

What rights does copyright provide?

U.S. copyright law provides copyright owners with the following exclusive rights:

• Reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords .
• Prepare derivative works based upon the work.
• Distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending.
• Perform the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic work; a pantomime ; or a motion picture or other audiovisual work.
• Display the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic work; a pantomime; or a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work. This right 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.

Copyright also provides the owner of copyright the right to authorize others to exercise these exclusive rights, subject to certain statutory limitations.

How long does copyright protection last?

The length of copyright protection depends on when a work was created. Under the current law, works created on or after January 1, 1978, have a copyright term of life of the author plus seventy years after the author’s death. If the work is a joint work, the term lasts for seventy years after the last surviving author’s death. For works made for hire and anonymous or pseudonymous works, copyright protection is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Works created before 1978 have a different timeframe. Learn more about copyright duration in our Duration of Copyrights Circular .

When can I use works that are not mine?

Agreements, exceptions, and limitations.

It is important to know that we are all also copyright users . When we read books, watch movies, listen to music, or use videogames or software, we are using copyright-protected works.

So, even if you are not the owner of a work, you still may be able to use it. In addition to buying or licensing works (or some other way of seeking permission to use the work), you can also use one of the Copyright Act’s exceptions and limitations, or rely on works in the public domain.

The Copyright Act’s exceptions and limitations found in sections 107-122 include fair use, the “first sale doctrine,” some reproductions by libraries and archives, certain performances and displays, broadcast programming transmissions by cable and satellite, to name a few. Interested in more information on fair use? Take a look at our Fair Use Index . The complete list of exemptions to copyright protection can be found in chapter 1 of Title 17 of the United States Code .

You can also use works that are in the public domain. Works in the public domain are those that are never protected by copyright (like facts or discoveries) or works whose term of protection has ended either because it expired or the owner did not satisfy a previously required formality. Currently, all pre-1926 U.S. works are in the public domain because copyright protection has expired for those works.

What is copyright registration?

Copyright exists automatically in an original work of authorship once it is fixed, but a copyright owner can take steps to enhance the protections. The most important step is registering the work. Registering a work is not mandatory, but for U.S. works, registration (or refusal) is necessary to enforce the exclusive rights of copyright through litigation. Timely registration also allows copyright owners to seek certain types of monetary damages and attorney fees if there is a lawsuit, and also provide a presumption that information on the registration certificate is correct.

Copyright registration also provides value to the public overall. It facilitates the licensing marketplace by allowing people to find copyright ownership information, and it provides the public with notice that someone is claiming copyright protection. It also provides a record of this nation’s creativity.

There is only one place to register claims to copyright in the United States: the Copyright Office. For more information on registration benefits and procedures, please see our Copyright Registration Circular .

What about other intellectual property rights?

Patent and trademark are other types of intellectual property that may cover works and are considered separately from copyright eligibility. For example, patents, which are granted by the government, protect certain inventions or discoveries, designs for articles of manufacture, and plant varietals. Trademark law, on the other hand, protects words, names, symbols, or devices used in trade with goods or services to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods or services of others. For more information on these other types of intellectual property, take a look at the United States Patent and Trademark Office's patent and trademark information.

What if there is change in ownership?

Document recordation.

The Copyright Office also records documents related to Copyright. This is known as Recordation , and means that the Office reviews and accepts documents, and keeps a record of, the documents people provide. Recordation relates to three different kinds of documents: transfers of copyright ownership, other documents relating to a copyright, and notices of termination, which authors or their heirs use when terminating certain transfers or licenses.

What is statutory licensing?

Statutory licenses are some of the limitations in the Copyright Act. They relate to certain uses of musical compositions, sound recordings, and cable and satellite programming. For comprehensive information on musical compositions and sound recordings, we have a number of useful resources like our Circulars and our dedicated Music Modernization Act page . For information on cable and satellite uses, visit our Licensing Division page .

Ready for more information?

For more general information on copyright law, please see our Learning Engine video series . You can learn about registering your copyright claims, including about some of our applications for a few common types of works on our Engage Your Creativity Page . If you want more detailed information on copyright law, we invite you to read our Circulars or FAQs . For a more advanced guide, please use our Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition . The Compendium is the Office’s administrative manual relating to the Copyright Act and our regulations and practices. It provides instruction to agency staff regarding their statutory duties and provides expert guidance to copyright applicants, practitioners, scholars, the courts, and members of the general public regarding institutional practices and related principles of law.

We’re here to help!

The Copyright Office website, copyright.gov , is the definitive source of copyright information. If you need additional assistance, the Public Information Office is available to help. You can contact us online , call at (202) 707-3000 or 1-877-476-0778 (toll free), or visit the Office in Washington, DC, in the Library of Congress Madison Building. Staff is available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except federal holidays. Want to learn more about the Copyright Office and what we do? Visit our overview page , where you can discover how we have been helping the public since 1870.