Entertainment Law: Protecting Your Intellectual Property
4 Tips: How to Protect Your Intellectual Property From Copyright Infringement
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, “copyright and trademark offenses have decreased by 56% since 2016.”
Musicians put a lot of work into creating their craft. Sometimes you may find someone has taken your craft and altered it in some way, or is trying to sell it as their own. Copyright infringement is more common than you think, and registering your intellectual property with copyrights is a key step in protecting your livelihood.
Why Copyright Is Important
Copyright is defined by Copyright.gov as “Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression.”
Copyrights are designed to give owners exclusive rights to their intellectual property. There are five key rights that copyright holders have:
Reproduce the work
Distribute the work
Prepare derivative works
Publicly perform the work
Publicly display the work
The addition of copyrights to musicians' work can allow them to have sole rights and discretion over that music.
Copyrights hold a lot of benefits for musicians, and it’s important to understand how they can help you in maintaining your career in the music industry.
1.Keep Records & Timelines
The odds of someone infringing on your rights as the creator are usually fairly high, especially as you gain a larger following.
Keeping record of all you do as you are creating your work can help establish stronger evidence that you are the rightful owner of that intellectual property. Keep a journal, spreadsheet, video or picture evidence as you are creating.
Be sure to sign and date each entry. It doesn’t hurt to have a secondary person sign either; that can ensure to a court that you had a key witness in you creating your craft.
Signed documents, drafts, and logs showing the evolution of the intellectual property are likely things infringing parties won’t have access to. If in the event you go to court, you can bring these records to prove you are in fact the rightful owner.
2.Avoid Joint Ownership & Limit Access
Having joint ownership over something can invite unwanted issues down the line. Even if you can trust your partner to have your best interest, you can’t guarantee things will always be smooth sailing.
It’s best for you to be the sole owner of your intellectual property to prevent errors of miscommunication and the chance of infringement.
As the sole owner, you will be able to decide what you do with your music and how you want to protect it. Having sole ownership over your intellectual property is the best way to avoid problems later on which could make it harder to protect it.
Limit the access to your intellectual property by setting up secure passwords, credentials, and risk analysis features such as two-factor authentication. Having safeguards in place will help limit unwanted eyes on your property.
Benefits of Registering For Copyrights- The Den Collective
3.Widely Publish Your Name
“Another common way to ensure that your IP is seen as yours is to publish and reference it widely, always ensuring that your company’s name is attributed to where it is mentioned,” according to an article by Forbes.
Publishing your name in a wide variety of places will create larger notoriety for your organization or image. Establishing a stronger public and online presence will not only ensure legitimacy but can help you when mentioning your works.
When you’re protecting your intellectual property with copyrights, be sure your name is referenced wherever your property is mentioned.
Entrepreneur David Murray states “The more you are seen online with your IP, the more support your patents [copyrights] have.”
4.Don’t Share Your Ideas Until Protected
When we have an idea we are passionate about, it’s easy to want to share it with those close to use. Whether to get an opinion, gain a partner, or just share the exciting news, sharing your unprotected ideas can be harmful.
Until you’ve filed a patent, copyright, or trademark you should keep your ideas a secret. If you share them before you have these in place, that can lead to someone else filing before you can and gaining ownership rights over it.
Be patient when it comes to sharing what you’re creating. Limiting access during the creative process will limit those who could steal your idea.
You want to be the first person to have rights over an innovative idea like yours, and in order to do that you have to keep your plans under wraps until ready to go public.
How Copyrights Can Benefit You
There may come a day when someone manipulates your music for their own benefit. Having your intellectual property registered under copyrights will help you protect your music from serious damage, and help you protect your livelihood as the rights holder.
There are many benefits to having copyrights, and understanding how copyrights work can help you be better protected when infringement does arise.
The Den Collective partners with our entertainment lawyer Peter Jay Speroni to provide sessions and resources on entertainment law. More information on the resources offered can be found here.
Protecting your music is important in sustaining your career in the music industry. Myself and The Den Collective are here to support and help in any way we can!
Sources:
https://www.copyright.gov/what-is-copyright/
https://www.tunecore.com/guides/copyrights-101
https://abounaja.com/blogs/protect-intellectual-property
https://www.antonlegal.com/blog/the-benefits-of-copyright-registration/
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/seven-benefits-of-copyright-registration-83951/