Websites and Online Content

You've spent a lot of time and money creating your website and its valuable content, so how do you protect it?

When you register a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, the legal protection extends to all the copyrightable content of the work that you claim as the subject of the registration.

This may consist of:

• Text
• Artwork
• Music
• Source Code
• Computer Programs
• Graphics
• Photos
• Audiovisual Material

For websites and all online works other than computer programs and databases, the registration will extend to all the copyrightable content of the work submitted along with the application and identified as the subject of the claim. The application for registration should exclude any material that has been previously registered or published or that is in the public domain.

The look-and-feel of a website can be protected if the individual elements are protectable and then copied. A simple way of proving that your original work has been copied is to insert some useless code into your source code and register the copyright. If copied, the evidence will be obvious!

Copyrightable material must be original and contain a minimal level of creativity. Generally, works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression are not eligible for copyright protection. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, titles, names, slogans, procedures, methods, concepts, principles, and discoveries, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. If organized in an original manner, that expression could be protected by copyright.

Your website may also have trademarks, which would be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A trademark is any word, name, symbol, design or device or any combination used to identify and distinguish the goods or services of the trademark owner over those of others. Typically, a business name, domain name, slogan and/or logo could be leally protected as a trademark.

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