Once you have decided to protect your website, online content, source code, computer program or database from plagiarism, theft and infringement, the next step is U.S. federal copyright registration. A brief overview of the registration process is as follows:

Application Questionnaire

In less than five minutes answer a few basic questions on our online application questionnaire, securely upload or send us your work (if required) and the DirectLegal team will do the rest.

We've drafted thousands of copyright applications so you can be confident that the entire application process will be handled smoothly, accurately and to the highest professional standards.

Document Preparation

We'll prepare all the appropriate government forms and review your application for accuracy, common errors, and completeness. We then offer two service choices:

If you'd like, we can simply complete the required documents and email or mail them to you ready for filing. We'll even send you easy-to-follow filing instructions. Once registered, your Registration Certificate will be mailed directly to you.

We also offer a complete filing service. See below.

Copyright Office Filing

If you prefer, once your documents are complete, we can then submit the completed application package to the U.S. Copyright Office, including all required forms, deposits and fees.

We'll prepare a deposit copy of the work you are registering in conformance with the specific requirements of the U.S. Copyright Office.

We pay all government filing fees directly from our own Copyright Office deposit account and pay all FedEx delivery fees.

We'll then provide a FedEx tracking number as confirmation of delivery and handle any back-and-forth communication with the U.S. Copyright Office regarding your application.

Be aware that the U.S. Copyright Office routinely rejects applications if not completed properly or where the deposit or identifying material is not submitted in conformance with specific requirements.

The Deposit

A complete copy of your work must be submitted along with your copyright application and remains the property of the U.S. Government's Library of Congress. For published works, two copies are required.

When you select our Copyright office Filing service we'll take of the special deposit requirements for websites, certain works of the visual arts, sound recordings, computer programs, works in CD Rom and motion pictures.

For a website or other online content, our software can download a complete copy of your work as appropriate, and prepare a deposit file in conformance with U.S. Copyright Office requirements.

Effective Registration Date

Copyright registration is "effective" on the date the Copyright Office receives the application, regardless of how long it then takes to process the application and mail the Certificate of Registration. Currently, the Copyright Office takes about 4-6 months to mail out registration certificates.

Copyright Office Confirmation

The U.S. Copyright Office does not provide a confirmation receipt of an application. That's why we send all application packages by FedEx to provide an acknowledgment of receipt by the Copyright Office. This date of receipt establishes your "effective registration date."

Registration Certificates

Once the process is complete, the Copyright Office will mail your Certificate of Registration. The "effective registration date" will be the date that your application and all required elements were received. Once a certificate of registration is issued, it is then catalogued into the Library of Congress database.

Working with DirectLegal will save you literally hundreds of dollars in legal fees - plus, we back up our service with a 100% satisfaction guarantee!