Where creative professionals come to learn about the law so they can create with confidence.

67 How to Copyright a Series of Books

Can you register your book series with the Copyright Office on one application and pay only one fee? If you are a certain type of writer, you can.

close up of smiling shark eyes and teeth

A hopeful entrepreneur told the Sharks how she shut down someone who infringed her design. They weren’t impressed. This is the enforcement strategy she should have used to make copyright infringement pay.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was a work for hire, but the department store employer returned the copyright to the author. This is how copyright registration turned Rudolph into a gold mine for the writer’s family.

using metadata to monitor your portfolio

Using metadata in your online creative work now will protect it later. Here’s how to do it.

Protect your creative rights by challenging those who would take them from you. It’s not always easy. Here’s what happened when I was caught off guard by someone who blatantly admitted stealing the creative work of others.

Trademark registration may not be the first thing you want to spend your money on, but plan for it in your budget. Successful businesses are built on branding.

The need for privacy is a concern for many writers and artists. Filing an application with the Copyright Office for a copyright registration on your work creates a public record. There is a natural tension between protecting your work with a public filing and protecting your privacy, but it can be done.

It takes a certain kind of person to be a creative entrepreneur. A successful business is made up of more than just a good idea. Good ideas are key, but they are also a dime a dozen. Solid execution is needed to bring that idea to fruition, to turn that idea into a going concern, to have that idea make money.

If you have a large portfolio of creative work that needs copyright protection, here’s a simple formula for deciding what to protect first.

It can take as much ingenuity to protect your designs as it does to create them. Designers in fields like graphic art, jewelry, furniture, and fashion need to use different laws in combination to catch copyists. Here are some examples of how copyright, contract, and trademark law work together to protect your work.

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