Building, launching, and maintaining a website may have been one of the bigger investments you made for your business. But it may have been a well-spent investment, as your remarkable online presence has likely distinguished your products and services from your competitors in the marketplace. Since you likely dedicated a lot of hard work toward making your website and its content, you should do everything possible to preserve and protect it, particularly with a copyright. That said, please continue reading to learn how to get your website copyrighted and how an experienced New Jersey copyright lawyer at The Ingber Law Firm can guide you through this important process.
What parts of my website should be copyrighted?
Simply put, any original works of authorship within your website should be formally protected by a copyright. Below are more specific examples that may apply to your website:
- The original code that forms your website’s build and structure.
- The original layouts, templates, and graphic styles on your website’s pages.
- The original music, podcasts, and other audio content promoted on your website.
- The original videos, tutorials, and other multimedia content placed on your website.
- The original photographs, logos, graphics, and other visual illustrations that fill your website’s pages.
- The original blog posts, articles, product or service descriptions, and other written content posted on your website.
As you can see, the operative word here is “original.” This means you cannot copyright common materials, materials already in the public domain, and material already owned by a third party, just to name a few.
How am I able to have my website copyrighted?
Essentially, you may be able to copyright your website if it meets the intellectual property standards for a compilation or collective work. Specifically, your website must have a sufficient body of creative expression made up of an original arrangement of codes, graphic designs, audio content, multimedia content, visual illustrations, text, etc. With that, you must also be the sole author of this culmination of original works. In the end, the United States Copyright Office will determine whether your website comprises enough original content to constitute a compilation or collective work.
But if the U.S. Copyright Office rules that you fail to meet this legal standard, you must not give up your efforts toward protecting your work. That is, you may still apply to protect your original works separately. This may have the same effect as copyrighting your entire website, it may just take more effort on your end. However, we urge you to take these extra precautions, as registration with this Office offers a public record of ownership and thereby strengthens your legal position against potentially infringing third parties.
No matter what, you do not need to feel alone in this process. A skilled Essex County, New Jersey intellectual property lawyer is ready to be in your corner and support you throughout. So please reach out to The Ingber Law Firm whenever you are ready.
