How to Register a Copyright in Montana

Introduction

The United States Copyright Office, located in Washington D.C., is responsible for registering copyrights. You can register a copyright in Montana online or print off an application form and mail it to the office. Once your registration has been processed, it will be assigned a copyright number.

Register Online

To register your copyright online, go to the United States Copyright Office website and select “Register a Copyright.”

Complete all of the required fields on their registration form, including:

• Title of your work (the name you want to use for it).
• Author’s name(s). If there are multiple authors, list them in order from most responsible for creating the work down to least responsible.
• Date when you created this work (if different than when it was registered).

Fill out the Online Form

To register a copyright in Montana, you will need to fill out the online form.

The first page asks for basic information about your work—the title, author (or authors), and date of creation. You will also have to decide if you want the exclusive right to distribute the work by sale or other means. If so, check off that box and enter an optional description of what “distribution” means to you. You’ll also have to choose between a standard claim or an unlimited number of photographs or other graphical works. There’s a fee difference between the two options: $35 for standard submission or $55 for standard submission plus unlimited photos/graphics.

Once that’s done, upload your file(s) into Dropbox (a free service used by many websites) and complete the rest of the fields on this page with more information about yourself and where people can find out how they can contact you if they want to talk about using something from one of your works—either commercially or non-commercially.

Upload Your Work

Gather all the work that you are willing to get registered by the United States Copyright Office and upload it.

Pay Submission Fee

You can pay the fee online by credit card, check, or money order. The Copyright Office only accepts payment by credit card for an online claim. If you pay by check, it must be drawn from a U.S. bank and made payable to the “Copyright Office”. To make sure your check clears the bank before your copyright expires, add at least three weeks to the publication date of your work as listed in our records.

To pay with a money order:

• Do not write “for deposit only” on the face of the money order.
• Write “Copyright Office – Fee Deposit Only” below “Payee” on the front of each individual sheet of paper (check stubs) or deposit slip that contains all required information.

Receive Confirmation

When you register your copyright, the US Copyright Office sends a confirmation email to the address you provide in your application. You can also check this status on their website. The confirmation email and website should say that your registration has been received, usually within 24 hours.

Also, after submitting your application, you will receive an email from the US Copyright Office letting you know that they have received it and are processing it.

Takeaway

The takeaway from this article is that you should register copyright in Montana as soon as possible.

If you are a Montana writer or artist, there are several benefits to registering your work with the United States Copyright Office. First and foremost is that it provides a legal defense against copyright infringement lawsuits. Second, it gives you the option of pursuing statutory damages and attorney’s fees if someone does infringe on your work. Lastly, registering your work under the Copyright Act makes it easier for future generations to find which works belong to you and how they can use them once they’ve passed into the public domain (which happens 70 years after creation).

Conclusion

Registering your copyright is a great way to protect your work against plagiarism and infringement. It’s also important to note that copyright law in the United States only protects original works of authorship, so if you want to register your work as a work made for hire or under some other type of protection, please contact an attorney or another legal professional who can help guide you through this process.