Copyright Law

The Shrayer Law Firm helps businesses register and monitor their intellectual property rights with the United States Copyright Office

In general, copyrights protect various forms of written and artistic expression. Our firm does not shy away from litigation to help our clients enforce their copyrighted works.

Copyright law grants the creators of works certain exclusive rights in their creations for a limited duration. Put another way, copyright protects the expression of ideas, but not the ideas themselves. Copyright protects works such as books, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, music, photographs, movies and computer programs.

Copyright is often described as a bundle of rights, which include the right: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work; (2) to make derivative works (such as a movie from a novel); (3) to distribute copyrighted works to the public; (4) to perform, publicly, certain works (such as music); and, (5) to display, publicly, certain works (such as paintings).

Registration of a copyrighted work with the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. is not required for existence of the copyright; however, it is a prerequisite to a lawsuit for copyright infringement and to certain legal remedies.