Hundreds of years ago, copying a book or even a page of text took significant manual labor. Because it only takes a few taps of a button today, every New Jersey business with digital content needs the services of an intellectual property law attorney — like those found at Gearhart Law.
If you produce digital content, your work could be an easy target for copyright infringement. Contact the lawyers at Gearhart Law in New Jersey today to get assistance with all your copyright protection needs. We’ll work diligently to make sure that the IP you’ve worked hard to produce continues to benefit you.
Copyright Protection in a Modern World
According to U.S. copyright laws, other parties do not have the right to make money off the content that you create unless you permit them to do so. Unfortunately, protecting your content is complicated, especially when it is digital content.
The average person can make a perfect copy of lots of types of digital content with just the press of a button. And it doesn’t take much more work than that needed to digitally package that content and sell it to another party.
This means copyright protection is more important than ever. The good news is that, unlike with other types of intellectual property, copyright protection attaches to any work, even digital work, the moment that you create it.
While registering a copyright is not required, it is recommended. When you register a copyright, this creates a public record of your copyrighted work. This record can be used to defend your copyright in court proceedings.
The danger when copyrighting digital material is that someone might steal it before you can register. When you publish a book, you typically have months to register your copyright before the book is published.
However, when you publish online, it can be accessible by others within minutes of being created. A malicious individual could quickly take that work and register it as their own.
Proactive Copyright Protection
For any type of online content, including software and websites, you should delay publication until you have filed a registration. Copyrights can be registered online, so the process can be started anytime, 24 hours a day.
Admittedly, registering a copyright will delay the publication of your material, which can be costly in the world of digital content. Even a few hours’ delay could result in a blog or digital news site losing millions of views.
This is why you should hire a copyright protection attorney to assist you. They can help you create an expedited process that registers your copyrighted material before it is published online.
Monitoring Copyright Infringement
No matter how much work you put into registering copyrights, that will not protect your work from someone who is committed to violating your copyright. The ugly truth is that people will steal copyrighted material and use it for their purposes.
While there is little you can do about people who steal it for private use, you can protect against those who steal copyrighted material for commercial use.
Experienced lawyers at Gearhart Law will help you create a process to monitor the internet for any use of your copyrighted material. If it is published by others, we can send cease and desist letters notifying them that they are sharing copyrighted material.
When another individual attempts to benefit financially from your copyrighted material, our copyright protection team will take more meaningful action. When necessary, we will file a lawsuit to prevent future infringements and compensate you for the damage already done to you or your business.
Typically, some form of takedown notice is all that is needed, especially when the infringing party is using a legitimate third-party vendor to commercialize your copyrighted material. Even if this does not get you compensation for potential lost profits, this usually prevents future infringements.
The more copyrighted material you have, the more important it is to devote resources to protecting your intellectual property. Digital media, while valuable, is also easily accessible.
Insidious parties could easily duplicate and market your copyrighted material thousands or millions of times within days of you publishing it. Investing in an experienced copyright protection attorney can help limit the damage.
Contact Gearhart Law: Attorneys Serving New Jersey Businesses
Enforcing digital copyright law has been challenging almost since the first computer could go online. If you do not want your copyrighted material to be freely marketed by other parties, an experienced copyright protection attorney can help you safeguard your intellectual property.
Contact Gearhart Law today to schedule an appointment with a dedicated copyright protection lawyer serving businesses in New York and New Jersey.