How to Register a Copyright in Wyoming

Introduction

If you want to protect your work, it’s important to register it with the U.S. Copyright Office. It isn’t difficult to do, but there are some steps that need to be taken before you can officially register a copyright in Wyoming.

Understanding Your Rights

Copyright is legal protection for the work you create. If you’re an author, musician, or another creator who has created something original, copyright law protects your intellectual property from unauthorized use by others. The more familiar you are with copyright laws, the better equipped you’ll be to protect your own works and make sure others don’t steal them.

The following information will help you understand what types of creations can be copyrighted and how to register for those rights:

What Is a Copyright?

A copyright protects an original work of authorship such as written words, songs, or visual artworks (such as paintings). In order to qualify for protection under U.S. law, a work must be creative and fixed in some tangible medium (i.e., paper or canvas). Prior to 1978, works were automatically considered copyrighted as soon as they were created unless they were explicitly labeled public domain by the creator or their heirs after death (this ended up being problematic because many creators didn’t realize that this was how things worked). Today it’s necessary to take additional steps in order for something to be considered legally protected by copyright laws before distribution takes place; however, distributing copies without permission from its owner still violates fair use principles even after registration occurs.

Prepare Application for Copyright Registration

Your application should include:

• A completed form is filed on paper or electronically.
• A nonrefundable filing fee of $35 is payable to the “Register of Copyrights” (made payable to the U.S. Copyright Office).
• A copy or copies of the work being registered for copyright protection (you may send up to 10 copies).

Filing a Copyright Application in Wyoming

To file copyright in Wyoming, you need to:

• Complete and submit Form WY-1, the application for copyright registration. You can download this form from the Library of Congress website or order it through the mail. It costs $65 to file your application if you submit it by mail or $90 if filing online (the fee is higher for groups). The form includes spaces for identifying information about yourself and your work, along with sections asking whether any other parties have rights to your work (such as publishers), and also provides space for statements regarding fair use. If there are no other parties with rights to your work, then this section should be left blank, if there are others who have rights, then their names must be listed here along with whom they represent (for example “Publisher”).

How to Register a Copyright in Wyoming

• If you are registering a work that has been published on the Internet, include with your application a copy of the URL where it is posted.
• You can register online with the Copyright Office’s online registration system. The fee for this service is $35 plus a flat processing fee of $6.00 per class of material being registered (e.g., music or audio-visual works). You should receive a certificate of registration within two weeks.

Takeaway:

The Copyright Office is the agency in charge of registering copyrights. You can register your work with them by submitting an application, along with two copies of your work and the appropriate fee. The office will then review your application and assign it a registration number if they find that you are entitled to copyright protection.

Conclusion

In order to register a copyright in Wyoming, you must first understand your rights. You have the right to register a copyright if you are the author of an original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium, including literary works; musical works; dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings and architectural designs. This means that if you own a song or short story that was written by someone else, but you added some creative touches such as lyrics or extra chapters at the end of each chapter then this would be considered an original work of authorship.