Required first step
Copyright Registration Strategy Consultation
The consultation includes advance review of a detailed questionnaire, a virtual consultation about the work identified in the questionnaire, and a personalized Copyright Registration Action Plan.
What we address
- The work and version being considered
- Potential authors and contributors
- The proposed copyright claimant and ownership path
- Publication status and prior versions
- Commissioned, employee, or contractor-created material
- Third-party and AI-generated material
- The likely application and deposit path
- Whether the matter needs registration, an assessment, documentation, or multiple applications
What the consultation does not include
- Contract, assignment, or agreement review
- A formal authorship or ownership opinion
- Application preparation or filing
- Drafting an assignment, license, or collaboration agreement
- Negotiation or dispute resolution
The consultation fee is not credited toward later services.
How services begin
A clear path from consultation to engagement
- Book a consultation.
Complete the advance questionnaire and identify the work you want to discuss. - Receive the Copyright Registration Action Plan.
The action plan identifies the recommended registration, assessment, documentation, or staged process. - Receive the appropriate engagement offer.
If the firm can assist, the engagement agreement states the exact service, scope, legal fee, government fee, and client responsibilities before work begins.
Registration legal fees
Copyright Registration Services and Pricing
The prices below are the firm’s legal service fees. United States Copyright Office filing fees are separate and are paid at the rate in effect when the application is filed.
Straightforward Copyright Registration
This service applies when all of the following are true:
- One completed work
- One individual human author
- The author is the sole owner and claimant
- The work is not a work made for hire
- No ownership transfer or agreement review is required
- No prior registration or complicated edition history
- No authorship or ownership dispute
- One application and one final deposit
Business-Owned or Commissioned Work Registration
The starting scope includes:
- One completed work
- One primary individual creator
- One business or organization claimant
- Review of one existing ownership document of up to 20 pages
- Review limited to the copyright ownership provisions needed for the application
- One application and one final deposit
- No conflicting documents, negotiation, or ownership dispute
Collaborative or Multi-Author Registration
The starting scope includes:
- One completed work
- Up to three potential authors or substantial contributors
- Contributor inventory and authorship analysis
- Claimant and ownership-path analysis
- Review of up to two existing agreements totaling no more than 20 pages
- A written registration recommendation summary
- One application and one final deposit
- No negotiation or active dispute
Multiple Authors, Multiple Owners, or Multiple Editions
This service is used for matters involving more than three contributors, multiple owners, different authors across editions, prior registrations, separately owned components, multiple works, or more than one application.
Before engagement, the written scope identifies the works, contributors, documents, applications, deposits, deliverables, and legal fee included in the project.
Start with the consultation
The consultation determines which service and scope applies to your work.
When registration is not ready to be scoped
Copyright Authorship and Ownership Assessment
The assessment is a separate document-based legal service for matters involving contributors, business ownership, commissioned work, transfers, multiple editions, prior registrations, or incomplete ownership records.
The $1,750 starting scope includes
- One identified work
- Up to three contributors
- Review of up to two agreements or ownership records totaling no more than 20 pages
- Authorship, claimant, ownership-path, publication, and edition analysis
- Identification of documentation gaps
- A written Copyright Authorship, Ownership, and Registration Action Plan
Separate from the assessment
- Copyright application preparation and filing
- Assignments, licenses, or collaboration agreements
- Negotiation with contributors or owners
- Correction of prior registrations
- Dispute resolution or enforcement work
If the requested review exceeds the starting scope, the firm provides a written custom quote before engagement.
Defined deliverables
Every copyright registration engagement includes
Application preparation
- Review of the completed registration questionnaire
- Attorney review of the work identified in the engagement agreement
- Review of the final deposit for consistency with the application
- Authorship, claimant, publication, and limitation review within the selected service scope
- Preparation of one application unless the engagement agreement lists additional applications
- One client review and correction round before filing
Filing and follow-through
- Electronic filing after client approval and payment of the Copyright Office filing fee
- Submission of the agreed deposit
- Filing confirmation and a copy of the submitted application information
- Status monitoring
- Forwarding material Copyright Office correspondence
- Review and response to one routine Copyright Office inquiry that can be answered from the facts and materials already provided
Not included in the registration legal fee
Separate services and additional charges
Additional registration work
- Copyright Office filing fees
- Additional applications or deposits
- Additional works, contributors, agreements, or editions beyond the written scope
- Substantive Copyright Office correspondence requiring new facts, documents, legal analysis, or a new application
- Refusal responses and reconsideration requests
- Supplementary registrations or correction of prior applications
Ownership, contracts, and disputes
- Copyright ownership assessments unless separately engaged
- Assignments, licenses, permissions, or collaboration agreements
- Negotiation with contributors or owners
- Third-party content clearance or fair-use analysis
- Infringement analysis, enforcement, litigation, or Copyright Claims Board matters
Ownership-documentation services
Copyright Assignment
For a defined transfer of copyright ownership when the material terms are established.
Coauthor or Collaboration Agreement
For ownership, revenue, control, credit, licensing, editions, and exit terms between collaborators.
Licenses, Negotiation, and Disputed Matters
Scoped according to the rights, parties, documents, and issues involved.
Before an application is prepared
When a matter needs another step first
Registration may need to wait when authorship or ownership is disputed, a contributor will not cooperate, existing agreements conflict, the proposed claimant cannot document ownership, editions cannot be separated, a prior registration may be inaccurate, or an assignment or settlement must be negotiated.
In those circumstances, the Copyright Registration Action Plan may recommend an assessment, additional record gathering, an assignment, a collaboration agreement, a separate dispute-related engagement, or a revised filing strategy.
Common copyright questions
The essentials before registration
When does copyright protection begin, and why register?
Copyright protection generally begins when qualifying original human authorship is fixed in a tangible form. Registration creates a federal record of the claim and may provide important legal and business benefits.
Does every creative work need to be registered?
No. A registration strategy may prioritize core works, commercially valuable works, signature materials, frequently licensed content, or works that present a meaningful business or enforcement need.
Can several related works be registered together?
Sometimes. Related works do not automatically qualify for one application. The available registration options depend on the type and number of works, authors, claimants, publication status, and deposit requirements.
Who should be named when a business, contractor, or collaborator is involved?
That depends on who created the copyrightable material, who owns the relevant rights, whether an effective transfer occurred, and what the proposed application will cover. Payment, business use, or participation alone may not answer the authorship or claimant questions.
Why does publication status matter?
Publication can affect the application, filing options, information entered into the record, and deposit requirements. The legal conclusion depends on how and when the work was made available or distributed.
Can a work created with artificial intelligence be registered?
Use of an AI tool does not automatically prevent registration. The claim must be directed to qualifying human-created authorship, and AI-generated material may need to be disclosed and excluded from the claim.
Will registration resolve an ownership dispute or guarantee an outcome?
No. Registration does not resolve private ownership disputes, and approval, timing, enforcement, and other legal outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
Educational resources
Prepare before a consultation
Copyright Registration Guides
Use the Copyright Registration Readiness Guide and the Coauthor & Collaboration Ownership Guide to organize the work, contributors, agreements, editions, publication facts, third-party material, AI use, and deposit information.
View the Copyright GuidesReady to identify the right path?
Book a consultation to receive a Copyright Registration Action Plan and the recommended next step.