Revision Legal’s copyright lawyers stand ready to protect your creative rights and defend against overreaching copyright attorneys. Our copyright lawyers have represented the creative rights of authors, artists, musicians, performers, and other content creators in copyright registration, copyright licensing, DMCA notifications, and copyright infringement lawsuits in United States federal courts. Our lawyers understand, enforce, and defend the rights of creators under both the United States Copyright Act and under international treaties, such as the Berne Convention.
For creative businesses—publishers, production companies, design studios, software developers, game studios, music labels, and individual artists—copyright is not just a legal concept. It is the core of the business. Copyright defines who owns the work, who can reproduce it, who can license it, and who can sue when it is infringed. Copyright lawyers help creative businesses acquire, structure, monetize, and defend these rights throughout the life of the work and the business.
Copyright protection arises automatically when an original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. But registration with the U.S. Copyright Office transforms that protection from a theoretical right into a practically enforceable one. Under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 411, registration (or a denial of registration) is a prerequisite for filing an infringement lawsuit for works created in the United States. The Supreme Court confirmed this requirement in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. 296 (2019).
Beyond enabling litigation, timely registration provides access to statutory damages and attorney’s fees. If a work is registered before infringement begins, or within three months of first publication, the copyright owner may elect to recover statutory damages rather than having to prove actual damages. Statutory damages can be as high as $150,000 per willfully infringed work under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c). This is critical for creative businesses because actual damages in copyright cases are often difficult to quantify and may not justify the cost of litigation on their own.
Our copyright lawyers handle registrations for individual works and for portfolios of creative content. We advise on work-for-hire issues, co-authorship questions, registration of derivative works, and the registration of compilations. We also identify and cure registration deficiencies for clients with existing copyright portfolios.
Copyright owners have six exclusive rights under 17 U.S.C. § 106: the right to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, publicly perform the work, publicly display the work, and digitally transmit sound recordings. Each of these rights can be licensed separately or collectively, exclusively or non-exclusively, for a limited territory or worldwide, for a limited term or in perpetuity.
Poorly drafted copyright licenses are a leading source of disputes in the creative industry. An ambiguous license that does not clearly define the scope of the rights granted, the territory, the term, the royalty structure, and the audit rights creates uncertainty that can generate expensive litigation years after the agreement is signed. Our copyright lawyers draft licensing agreements that are clear, comprehensive, and aligned with the business objectives of each client. We represent licensors, licensees, and intermediaries in transactions ranging from simple work-for-hire agreements to multi-territory catalog licensing deals.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512, establishes the legal framework for addressing online copyright infringement. Under the DMCA safe harbor provisions, online service providers are protected from liability for hosting infringing content posted by users—but only if they respond expeditiously to properly formatted takedown notices and implement a policy for terminating repeat infringers.
For copyright owners, the DMCA takedown process provides a faster and less expensive alternative to litigation for removing infringing content from major platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, WordPress, and others. Our copyright lawyers draft and send DMCA takedown notices and handle the counter-notice process when a recipient disputes the takedown. When platforms fail to respond to valid notices, we escalate to litigation if necessary.
We also advise platforms and online service providers on maintaining DMCA safe harbor compliance, including designating a DMCA agent with the U.S. Copyright Office, implementing a repeat infringer policy, and establishing a proper notice and takedown procedure.
When informal resolution is not possible, our copyright lawyers pursue infringement claims in United States federal courts. To establish copyright infringement, a plaintiff must prove ownership of a valid copyright and copying of constituent elements of the work that are original. Copying can be proven either through direct evidence or through circumstantial evidence showing that the defendant had access to the plaintiff’s work and that the defendant’s work is substantially similar to protected expression in the plaintiff’s work.
We also defend clients who have been accused of copyright infringement. Defenses including fair use, independent creation, the idea-expression dichotomy, scenes-a-faire, and the merger doctrine can defeat infringement claims that initially appear strong. Our copyright lawyers evaluate all available defenses and pursue the most cost-effective resolution for each client, whether through motion practice, settlement, or trial.
Contact Revision Legal’s copyright lawyers today. Whether you need to register a library of creative works, draft a licensing agreement, send a DMCA takedown, or defend your rights in federal court, we are ready to help.
Copyright protection in the United States does not automatically extend to foreign countries, but international copyright treaties provide reciprocal protection in most of the world’s major economies. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, to which over 180 countries are parties, provides that each member country must protect the works of authors from other member countries under the same terms as it protects the works of its own nationals, without requiring any formalities such as registration or notice. This means that a U.S. copyright owner’s work is automatically protected in all Berne Convention member countries without any additional registration requirement.
However, practical enforcement of copyright in foreign jurisdictions often requires local counsel and local litigation. Our copyright lawyers work with qualified foreign counsel in key markets to advise clients on international copyright enforcement strategies and to coordinate multi-jurisdictional enforcement campaigns when copyright piracy occurs on a global scale. For businesses that license their copyrighted content internationally, our attorneys also draft and negotiate international licensing agreements that address the specific requirements of foreign copyright law. Contact Revision Legal’s copyright lawyers for a consultation on your domestic and international copyright needs.
Work for hire is one of the most misunderstood concepts in copyright law, and it is responsible for some of the most costly legal disputes in the creative industry. When a business commissions content from an independent contractor—a freelance writer, a graphic designer, a web developer, a photographer—many business owners assume they own the copyright to the resulting work because they paid for it. That assumption is wrong. Under 17 U.S.C. § 101, copyright in a work created by an independent contractor belongs to the contractor unless the parties have signed a written agreement expressly designating the work as made for hire (and the work falls within one of the statutory categories for commissioned works) or expressly assigning the copyright to the hiring party.
Our copyright lawyers review existing contractor relationships to identify and cure copyright ownership gaps before they become legal problems. We also draft work for hire agreements and intellectual property assignment clauses for businesses that regularly commission creative content. If you are a creative professional who wants to understand the copyright implications of the agreements you are asked to sign, we advise creators on retaining the rights they are entitled to. Contact Revision Legal’s copyright lawyers today for a consultation.
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