Registration advice / contact
Answers for many common questions
Names and titles
Copyright does not protect individual names, titles or phrases in their own right.
Such items may easily be duplicated by coincidence, and are therefore not considered unique or substantial enough to be awarded copyright protection in their own right.
We therefore cannot accept registrations that only consist of a title.
Copyright does not protect individual names, titles or phrases in their own right.
We therefore cannot accept registrations that only consist of the company, organisation or brand name.
A trading name may however be subject to a trademark and also protected under common law against passing off.
Internet domain names are not subject to copyright and should be registered via your ISP or an independent domain registration service.
You can however register a website. The content of the website: written content, images or artwork, scripts and code, etc. will be subject to copyright and eligible to register.
Ideas and concepts
Copyright does not protect ideas or concepts in their own right. Copyright applies to work that is fixed in a tangible form, (i.e. written documents, sound recordings, etc.). It does not directly apply to the idea of something.
You cannot ‘copyright an idea’, but copyright will apply to a recorded work that realises your ideas, e.g. a script, written proposal, etc. will be subject to copyright and can be registered.
Using the work of others
By default, the first owner of copyright in a work will either be the author that created the work, or their employer. Copyright can also be sold, inherited, or given away by the current owner just like any other asset, so copyright ownership can change over time.
Sometimes tracing a copyright owner can take some investigation, but the best place to start is with whoever is publishing the work now. If the work is no longer being published, then you should start by contacting the last known publisher.
Before you can legally use another person's work , you will normally need the permission of the copyright owner.
In most cases, the best route to follow is to contact the current publisher, (or last known publisher), of the work in question. The publisher will certainly know who to deal with, and if they cannot arrange permission themselves, they will know who you need to speak to.
There may also be licensing schemes in place, or the author may be a member of a collection agency that can assist you.
Registration questions
We recommend that registration is carried out before you make the work available to other that you may perhaps not trust, i.e. before you publish your work online, or send it to publishers, agents, etc.
If the work changes after registration we offer facility to submit a new version of the work at a later date if needed.
Yes, copyright protection is an automatic international right of the author, and copyright will protect your work at a worldwide level. The rules dealing with this are governed by international conventions, principally the Berne Convention, which ensures that countries respect the rights of foreign authors.
Our service is intended to provide proof of your work at a worldwide level, regardless of where you are, or where the infringement occurs.
It is perfectly normal to register as a collective. and we will accept either the name of collective (e.g. a group name), and/or a list of the individuals on the application form, either is perfectly valid, (if there is not enough space on the form, simply enclose a list of names on a separate sheet).
There is no problem registering if you use a pseudonym or pen name.
For clarity, we recommend that when you complete the 'Copyright owner' section of the application form you state both your real name and the pseudonym.
You should use one of the following formats:
- Real Name (pseudonym: 'Pseudonym'), or
- Pseudonym (real name: Real Name)
For example:
- Reg Dwight (pseudonym: 'Elton John'), or
- Elton John (real name: Reg Dwight)
Yes. It is quite normally to group a number of related items together as a single work when registering (and therefore pay just one registration fee for the album as a whole).
Yes. It is quite normal to register a number of related items together as a single work when registering.
The items should share the same copyright ownership and you will need to enter a single title for the collection as a whole as the 'title of work' field on the form.
For works such as software and web applications the source code is primarily where copyright exists and should be included with your application.
Online: If you are submitting via the on-line registration facility, we recommend that you first convert the source files into a single zip archive. This will ensure that the directory structure of the files is preserved, and also compresses your files which may reduce the upload time. Please see our instructions on how to create zip archive files for further details.
Postal: If you are submitting by postal application, simply include the source files (and any accompanying items) on a CD with your application form.
Once the initial registration has been made, you will be able to use the update facility to add new versions of the work when needed as your work changes over time.
Help with online registration
If you are experiencing problems uploading files, there are a number of things to check that could be preventing your files from getting to us.
There is a known issue with the current version of the Microsoft Edge browser that can cause the browser to keep refreshing the page and then fail with the error "This page is having a problem loading".
As we can tell, this is due to a bug in the current version of the Edge browser.
If affected, we recommend using a different web browser (such as Google Chrome or Firefox) until a more permanent solution is available.
Examples of Edge errors due to this problem:
Contact an advisor
If you cannot find the answer to your question above, please get in touch via our contact form.
Please understand that our advisors can only respond to questions regarding registration and our services. We do not provide advice on licensing or individual legal issues.