You might be wondering why you would want to bother with copyright law for an issue in your profession. The answer is simple – not to dispute your ownership in courts!
Every creation requires time, energy, and effort. The time involved varies significantly between projects. It may vary from a few minutes to a few years. Besides, any creative work also requires a certain amount of real capital and education or knowledge. All these things add up to a massive investment on the part of any creative professional. The truth is that getting copyright protection for your work can be a confusing process. However, understanding the language of legal jargon and knowing where you stand legally is important, if not essential, to protect that which belongs only to you: your intellectual property rights, as an author or creator with exclusive rightsholders over their original works.
Protect, or not protect, that is a question?
For most artists and creators out there, they must have sufficient knowledge about how they’re protected under the Copyright Law so that no one else other than them, such as middlemen distributors who exploit these valuable creations without giving any form of a credit back, can misuse what rightfully belongs solely to the artist themselves. Copyright protection is your best friend when it comes to protecting from those who infringe your creations.
Protect, or not protect, that is a question?
For most artists and creators out there, they must have sufficient knowledge about how they’re protected under the Copyright Law so that no one else other than them, such as middlemen distributors who exploit these valuable creations without giving any form of a credit back, can misuse what rightfully belongs solely to the artist themselves. Copyright protection is your best friend when it comes to protecting from those who infringe your creations.
So, what is that beast, copyright?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects only the form of expression, not the idea itself. It provides authors and creators with exclusive rights to their original material to use it or duplicate it without other people being able to do those things for themselves. The reason copyright exists is that some ideas exist independently from any medium (words on paper) in which they’re written down – for example, mathematical formulas – which cannot be protected by traditional forms of Intellectual Property Law such as patents and copyrights.
To be legally protected as a copyrighted work, an object must demonstrate originality and creativity. In other words, the work cannot have been copied from anything else. It also needs to show enough measure of creativity judged by the local court based on merits specific to each case-in-point.
Protecting your creations with copyright may add valuable bonuses:
- The copyright owner can assign his or her legal rights for authorized use under a licensing agreement to use the work. This means that creators may make money on leasing or selling their intellectual property assets, so now they have an opportunity and motive in creating art.
- Registering your copyright is a great way to show that you legally own it; if someone violates and steals from you, they could be liable for statutory damages.
Creations that can be protected under © sign in the UAE and worldwide
Determining which particular creation can be copyrighted is difficult. For example, it may help to associate each area with what they protect.
- If you want to ensure your brand has the protection it deserves, don’t forget that protecting its brand name, brand logo, slogan, and even its original font is just as important. We know how much of an investment a company’s branding can be – so why not put in some extra effort? Protecting what makes your brand unique will help build your reputation for years to come!
- If you are a gifted author, protect your books with the literary equivalent of Fort Knox. Your work deserves to be protected and preserved for future generations.
- Tech geeks may protect by copyright law, computer programs, databases, software, and mobile applications games, and other web-related items.
- All artists in the entertainment industry deserve to be compensated for their work. Copyright laws ensure that they can monetize their work and allow them peace of mind as a result.
- Graphic artists, designers, and drafters can safely claim intellectual property rights protection in such activities as architecture works, engineering plans and layouts, works of drawing, painting, sculpture, engrave or similar works in the scope of fine arts, photographic works, and works analogously to photography, works of applied and plastic art, illustrations, geographical maps, sketches, three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography and architecture designs.
A brief glimpse into the copyright legal jungle
Copyright protection is automatically granted to authors. The Berne Convention doesn’t impose any mandatory registration procedures on them, which means they don’t need permission from governments or other organizations before publishing their work. The Berne Convention provides copyright protection from the moment you put your original, copyrightable subject matter into a permanent form. Thus, you are protected from plagiarism and lawsuits for copying someone else’s work as soon as it is written down or recorded in any way (even if that recording only exists on paper).Nevertheless, despite such freedom in registration and discretion in the choice provided by national and international regulation, the protection of the rights of rights-holders can be significantly complicated at the stages of ensuring or enforcing their rights in state courts or official bodies.
Imagine that you are a scientist. You just finished your innovative formula and want to ensure it is protected by Copyright Law. The registration of your work serves as independent proof of the date of its creation. In addition, it provides a way for others to identify who authored the piece by establishing ownership rights over their original idea or expression concerning any other parties interested in using it without consent from both authors first. Without registering this information, rights-holders may find themselves unable to come forward with evidence if someone else steals their idea because they have no formal documentation proving they own exclusive intellectual property concerning said material’s composition – be sure not to let anyone infringe your ideas!
