CALIFORNIA COPYRIGHT ATTORNEYS, SAN DIEGO COPYRIGHT LAWYERS, ORANGE COUNTY COPYRIGHT ATTORNEYS

Palm Springs Copyright Attorney R. Sebastian Gibson, Palm Desert Copyright Lawyer, California Copyright Attorney

Serving the Palm Springs Palm Desert Area, Riverside, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, the Central Coast, San Bernardino & Santa Barbara from our law offices in Rancho Mirage, CA

Copyright lawyers in California and elsewhere provide protection to authors of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other intellectual works, published and unpublished.

The 1976 Copyright Act law confers upon the owner of copyright, the exclusive right to reproduce it, prepare derivative works, distribute copies or phonorecords of it or display it publicly. The attorneys utilized by our California law firm including Sebastian Gibson and attorneys utilized from other law firms must advise that the copyright does not protect the subject matter of a writing, but only the form of expression, e.g., the written, recorded, displayed or performed description of the subject matter.

Copyrights are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office of the Library of Congress and through the Rancho Mirage Law Offices of copyright attorney R. Sebastian Gibson, serving LA, Los Angeles and all of southern California, who can apply for copyrights on behalf of our law firm's clients.

Copyrights can be obtained, with the expertise of attorney and lawyer Sebastian Gibson by copyright registration of your book, manuscript, online work, pamphlet, poetry, report, test, automated database, computer program, text, pictorial, graphic or sculptural work, 2 and 3 dimensional works of fine, graphic and applied art, architectural work, musical work, dramatic work, script, pantomime, choreography, motion picture or other audiovisual work, music, drama, lecture, periodical, newspaper, magazine or mask work (related to integrated circuits on a semiconductor chip). Our law firm and the copyright attorneys and lawyers who work with us from other law firms as necessary, will review your work.

Copyrights are not, however, unlimited in scope. The doctrine of "fair use", as defined by the law and interpreted by the courts in California, limits the scope of copyright as do "compulsory licenses" under

which certain limited uses of copyrighted works are permitted upon payment of specified royalties and compliance with statutory provisions.

Copyright attorneys in California note that it is a common misconception that copyright protection begins upon registration. In fact, copyright begins as soon as the work is created. The copyrighted work immediately becomes the property of the author, whether or not the work is ever registered. Our California copyright law firm and the attorneys and lawyers whom we associate in on individual cases, wish to point out that there is a limitation on this is in the case of works made for hire where the employer rather than the employee is considered to be the author.

Among the categories of material generally not eligible for copyright protection, as defined by the law and and noted by Palm Springs desert area copyright lawyer Sebastian Gibson in California, are works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression, titles, names, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols or designs, lettering, coloring, mere listings of ingredients or contents, ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries or devices, or works consisting entirely of information that is common property and which contains no original authorship for copyright protection.

While generally the above categories may not be copyrighted, some categories may be eligible for trademark or patent protection. Our copyright law firm and other copyright attorneys and lawyers who are retained by our Southern California copyright law firm from time to time, help define these parameters for you.

Although neither publication nor registration in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright, there are definite advantages afforded with the help of copyright attorney and lawyer Sebastian Gibson assisting clients in the Palm Springs Desert Area, Riverside, the Inland Empire, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, the Central Coast, Santa Barbara and throughout Southern California, from law offices in Rancho Mirage.

While publication is no longer as important as it once was, it still remains important to copyright owners. For instance, the year of publication may determine the duration of copyright protection of works made for hire. Attorney and Lawyer Sebastian Gibson cautions clients in San Diego, Orange County, CA  and throughout Southern California that, when a work is published, it should bear a notice of copyright to identify the year of publication and the name of the copyright owner to give notice to the public that the work is protected by copyright.

The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under California or U.S. law, but it still remains beneficial in the opinion of California attorney Sebastian Gibson and other lawyers throughout the world. And, because such a requirement was required under prior law, the use of notice is still relevant to determining the copyright status of older law.

While much information is available at the Library of Congress website, in perhaps no other area of law is California copyright attorney Sebastian Gibson more useful than in an analysis of copyright ownership, than when one is considering the copyright status of older works. In the transfer of copyright of those older works, consulting copyright lawyers and attorneys can be paramount.

In order for any or all of a copyright owner's exclusive rights to be transferred, the transfer must be in writing and signed by the owner of those rights or by the owner's duly authorized agent or attorney. A  copyright may also be conveyed by operation of law or bequeathed by will or pass as the personal property by the applicable state laws governing interstate succession. The courts interpreting statutes and case law in cases brought by the Southern California copyright law firm's attorneys and lawyers that we have utilized from other law firms as necessary, have stated that a copyright is a personal property right. Transfers of copyright may be recorded with the Copyright Office and afford certain legal advantages, and may be required to validate the transfer as against other third parties.

Formerly, the copyright in a work is reverted to the author if living, or if not living, to the author's specific beneficiaries, provided a renewal claim was registered in the 28th year of the original term of copyright.  California copyright law firm attorneys and lawyers today point out that present law has dropped the renewal requirement except for works which were in their first term of statutory protection when the present law took effect. Today, the current law permits termination of a grant of rights by following certain procedures and under certain conditions, after 35 years by serving notice on the transferee(s) within specified time limits. For works under statutory copyright protection before 1978, a similar right of termination is provided covering the newly added years that extended the former term of  copyright from 56 years to 95 years. Our California copyright law firm and any lawyers retained to work on your case can review the time limits for your work. Protection of a copyright by our California copyright firm and any copyright attorneys we utilize, assist a client against unauthorized use in a particular foreign country depend on the national laws of that country and the international copyright treaties and conventions to which they subscribe.

While applications for copyright are quite simple, a mistake made in the application can greatly affect a claimant's rights in a court of law, for instance, with regard to ownership of a work for hire. Consulting copyright attorney Sebastian Gibson and the copyright attorneys and lawyers we utilize in our copyright law firm, serving the Palm Springs Desert Area, Riverside, the Inland Empire, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, the Central Coast & Santa Barbara from our law offices in Rancho Mirage, CA, can help you avoid these pitfalls.

While this information barely scratches the surface of copyright law, as does the information contained at the Library of Congress website, copyright attorneys, such as copyright attorney Sebastian Gibson should be consulted for proper analysis of a person's copyrights, when possible, in the application process and, of course, with respect to any litigation.