How To Copyright A Book

In a world filled with literature competition and hence infringement and theft, a question has been raised in mind about how to protect your intellectual property through copyrights and how to copyright a book, and do you need to copyright it before publishing?

The creation of the mind is protected by intellectual property, which includes inventions, literature, designs, artistic work, names, and symbols used for commercial aims. you need to put in mind that, you own the copyright to your book the moment you begin writing it.

In order to enforce your rights over your book and get full protection against any infringement of those rights, you should consider registering the copyright of your literature work, so let’s discuss how to copyright a book in detail with your step-by-step guide, that is brought to you by Baianat IP which offers a one-stop shop for all intellectual property rights.

What Is a Copyright?

Copyrighting starts when an author establishes a public record of his art of creation. Only the copyright holder has an exclusive right for his artwork to copy, create a derivative, distribute or publicly display it and no other entity is allowed to profit from the copying or distribution of your material.

copyright protection does not extend to ideas, facts, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in form of writing or drawings and claim copyright in the description, but copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work. You need to be aware of the three basic elements of copyright which are originality, tangibility, and creativity, in order to be protected by copyright your work, must possess these features.

What is the difference between a copyright, trademark and patent?

copyright protects original works of authorship. A patent protects new inventions, scientific creations, and processes. a trademark protects brands, slogans, and logos.

Why Copyright Your Book ?

Copyrights are your only way to defend your artwork against infringement by any other entity. Ex, copyrighting your book can stop other authors from copying or plagiarizing your work and can stop the bookstore from selling their own copies of your artwork to make a profit.

The ownership of your work starts from the moment you start writing it, but this doesn’t deny the fact stating the need of registering your copyrights if you later need to take action against copyright infringement.

Without a registered copyright you will face the struggle of proofing that the work under dispute is yours and that you are the sole copyright owner, which will be so hard without prior notice that the work already existed. All artwork created after January 1, 1978, lasts for a lifetime plus 70 years after the author passes away.

After discussing the definition of copyrights and its importance for your artwork, let’s get back on track and answer our main question how to Copyright a Book?!!

Steps are different from one country to another according to laws and Agreements to which the country is subject. If you’re looking to register your literary work in the U.S you must submit a copyright application to the US copyright office. Here is a step-by-step guide for how to copyright a book:

Visit the Official Copyright Website.
Select the Proper Category.
Create an account.
Select “Register a Work.”
Fill Out the Appropriate Forms.
Pay the Fee.
Submit Your Written Material.

In KSA copyright is registered through the Public Authority for Intellectual Property, through multiple legal steps, of course, after the contract between the author and publisher is regulated through a notarized legal contract. To avoid wasting time and effort, we recommended hiring a professional intellectual agency to help you file your copyright application.

How to Add a Copyright Page to Your Book

Adding a copyright page on your book will not provide you with extra safety, but it will let any viewer know that the book is copyrighted, which will stop them to think about plagiarism of it.

The copyright page should contain the author’s name, year of publication, book edition, reservation of rights, copyright symbol, ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and a declaimer or warning message that informs anyone that informs the reader that any advice or information taken from the book is entirely at their own discretion.

If a book doesn’t have a copyright page and has multiple years listed, this indicated that the book has more than one edition. If no copyright symbol is not found at all it might indicate that the copyright has expired and this is true for all published books before 1924.

What are things that are not protected by copyrights?

Ideas
Facts (including data)
Names(cant be protected by copyrights but can be protected by trademarks in some cases).
Information already in the public domain
Concepts
Works made by the federal government
Laws (including court decisions, statutes, cases, regulations, and constitutions)
Methods of doing something
Short phrases and titles
Blank forms and works designed for recording information
Fonts

you can read more on Baianat intellectual property.

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Why are titles not protected by copyright?

Names, titles, and other short phrases are too minimal to meet these requirements of copyrights, as for artistic work to be protected by copyright, it must contain a minimum amount of authorship in the form of the original expression.

Can two books have the same title?

Since titles cannot be copyrighted in the US. Therefore, more than two books can have the same title. But you have to put in mind that if you use a title already used by another book, it will make it hard for your book title to stand out.

How do I check my book title availability?

The easiest way is to search the title using a google search engine, it will provide you with the needed information if the title is already in use. Another way is TESS, the online search at the U.S Patent and Trademark Office. which can help you while searching if the title is trademarked before or not, and then you can start the trademark process. You can do it your self but it’s better to ask for help from intellectual property firm to help you with filling out the application.

How do you reserve a book title?

As we have mentioned before that titles are not protected by copyright, but you can protect them using the trademark with one condition to be a title for a series of books, and this is how trademark conditions fulfil their role.

Select the name of your series. …
Do a Trademark Search. …
File the Application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. …
Track the progress of your application. …
Achieve Registration.

Can unpublished books be copyrighted, and should you copyright a book before sending it to a publisher?

Yes, you can start registering copyrights for your book even before publishing it, as the copyright office consider the book as published when its distributed and available to the public either printed or digital.

We have mentioned that your work is protected by IP rights from the moment you start writing it, so it’s not an obligatory step to copyright a book before sending it to the publisher.

Baianat IP and copyright registration services

We at Baianat IP understand the true meaning of intellectual property and how important it is to keep it safe, all of this helped us to protect your intangible assets and maximize their value.

We will help and guide you with how to copyright a book and how to defend your rights as an author and various potential copyright issues, as we provide defensive litigation in all areas of intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, industrial designs, trademarks, domain names, infringement issues to help protect unique artistic creations.

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info@baianat-ip.com.sa