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Welcome to the
Copyright Website

Welcome to the nexus of creativity and legality—your premier source for navigating the complex world of copyright. Launched on May Day 1995, the Copyright Website strives to lubricate the machinations of information delivery. As spice is to Dune, information is to the web; the spice must flow. Our mission is to provide the knowledge and tools to help you optimize your own information and creative works.

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The Universal
Copyright System

As the Copyright Website prepares to celebrate it's 30th anniversary, it is excited to unveil the Universal Copyright System.

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Copyright Stats

Number of subscribers

25K +

Registrations completed

7K +

Serving the Internet for

29 years

Countries now served

243

What is Copyright?

Here in the information age, virtually all intellectual creations can be protected by some form of intellectual property law. Intellectual property generally divides the universe intellectual creations into three domains:

Copyrights

Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to tangible form.

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Patents

Patents protect innovation. While you can't copyright an idea, you can patent one.

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Trade Secrets

Trade secrets protect confidential business information that provides a competitive edge.

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In a nutshell, copyright protects expression, patents protect ideas, trade secrets protect confidential business information that provides a competitive edge.

Copyright

Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to tangible form, such as a book, piece of recorded music, computer program, screenplay, painting, photograph, or motion picture.

The moment you fix your original work in a tangible form (like writing it down or recording it), you are copyrighted. No, you don not need to register with the Library of Congress or send yourself a sealed copy in the mail (though that's a fun myth). However, registering does give you legal advantages if someone decides to use your work without asking.

Key features of copyright:

  • Automatic protection upon creation
  • Long duration (typically life of the author plus 70 years)
  • Covers expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves
  • Examples: books, songs, movies, software code

Patents

Patent protects innovation. While you can't copyright an idea, you can patent one. The idea behind patent is to encourage innovation by giving inventors a limited monopoly on their ideas.

You have to prove your invention is new, useful, and non-obvious. Then, for a hefty fee and a lot of patience, you might get a 20-year monopoly on your invention. But remember, you're telling the world how it works, so if you're not ready to share, maybe reconsider.

Key features of patents:

  • Requires application and approval process
  • Limited duration (typically 20 years from filing date)
  • Protects novel, non-obvious, and useful inventions
  • Examples: new machines, chemical compounds, processes

Trade Secrets

A trade secret is confidential business information that provides a competitive edge. Unlike patents and copyrights, trade secrets rely on maintaining secrecy rather than legal registration.

You just have to keep it secret. If you're caught sharing your secret sauce recipe, well, it's not a secret anymore. The protection lasts as long as the secret remains, well, secret.

Key features of trade secrets:

  • No registration required
  • Potentially indefinite protection as long as secrecy is maintained
  • Protects formulas, patterns, devices, or compilations of information
  • Examples: Coca-Cola formula, Google's search algorithm
Intellectual Property