You can register any original creative work recorded in some way using GCR Copyright registration services. The work can be comprised of written material like fiction, non-fiction, poetry, reference, scripts, screenplays, and the like. Audio material like music, lyrics, speeches both in written and audio. The visual material may be a drawing, a painting, a photograph, a plan, a logo, a design, a film, a cartoon relevant stuff. Digital material like a website, computer program, database, etc. In short, any original creative work is applicable to be registered via GCR to protect copyrights.
GCR intends mainly for registration of unpublished works since there are usually state-specific processes in place for published works’ registration. Nonetheless, you can also get your published work registered if desired.
Once you have collected Berne Convention certificate straight from Berne Convention or an affiliate like ‘The Global Copyright Registry’, you can verify it on the website by giving exclusive serial number of the certificate you have in possession.
GCR cannot help you register and protect any sort of ideas, but a business or individual's precise presentation of the ideas. For example, a scientist who has written an article on some latest theory may not be eligible to claim copyrights over that theory; in addition, he/she cannot stop other experts in the field to discuss the theory in question in other articles. What a scientist can do is to register copyrights over his/her own produced articles and can rightfully stop others from reproducing the articles.
Similarly, if a fiction writer has written a story, novel or script, etc. about making a journey to the moon, he/she can register copyrights over the story but cannot restrict other writers from writing stories about journeys to the moon. In short, a complete work as a whole can be covered by copyrights, and not only an idea.
In certain cases, you may get an idea registered as a patent. The organizations dealing with such matters vary from country to country and it is advised that you ask an IP lawyer in local jurisdiction for proper and lawful advice.
It is not possible to register a name, a title as well as a short phrase as they aren’t subject to copyrights. Nonetheless, if names and titles are combined with images and/or graphical designs such as logos and graphical design, you may get them registered at GCR. In addition, you may also register names, titles and short phrases if they are used as trademark.
The organizations dealing with such matters vary from country to country and it is advised that you ask an IP lawyer in local jurisdiction for proper and lawful advice.
Any person with an originally created work is eligible to get his/her work registered at GCR such as writers, scientists, artists, researchers, composers, computer programmers and designers, photographers. The nationality and residence of the copyright applicant are not restricted since the copyright law is ruled and administered by international conventions that pledge all residents of subscribed countries certain minimum rights. Any business representative can register the work in question for the business and it is suggested for businesses to have one particular representative to manage one single account to cover the entire business registrations.
The countries linked to Berne Convention can protect copyrights of works produced in other Berne Convention countries. It signifies if your work is copyright protected in a Berne Convention’s member country, it is actually protected in the entire Berne Convention’s member countries. Berne Convention has 162 member countries out of 190. Therefore, GCR will register your work easily if you are in Berne Convention’s member country.
Some Berne Convention’s member countries might have few extra limitations, rights, and/or requisites above and beyond Convention’s demands, but they will not have any effect on fundamental rights of Convention.
You can see the list of certified members of Berne Convention below:
If your place of living is included in any of 162 Berne Convention’s member countries, your registered work is valid for all of them, so you don’t require to seek protection for every country on individual basis. Nonetheless, the countries which are not members of Berne Convention, you must seek advice by a professional IP lawyer to proceed with registration process.
Registration is supposed to be made under legal name of copyright holder whether it is a person or an organization. In case you have made a work under employment, it is highly likely that the company will claim copyrights. In such a situation, you must read the contract of employment for clear understanding. In case you own business, it is better to register the work under your business’s name for future benefits. E.g. if the work is company’s website, you should register it in the name of company. If it is a work of fiction having no connection with business, it is better to get it registered in your own name.
Yes, you can, but it is not advisable. It is advisable to use your legal name to register your work. In case you use a professional pseudonym, have it inserted in a suitable field. Both names will be shown on your registration.
A valuable work should be protected against piracy, duplication, stolen and subject to any other unauthorized usage. Therefore, you must have your work registered to avoid these issues and claim to be legal owner of your work.
Getting your work with GCR gives self-determining third-party verification of the possession of your work which is a great assistance in protecting your rights and preventing long and/or ineffective legal measures. When you show GCR’s seal on your original work, you will ultimately discourage any plagiarists and pirates.
We feel sorry to say ‘No’ to this question. In year 2006, IP Rights Office decided to stop paper submissions or archive because of the high expenses of handling including warehousing. Now IP Rights Office takes registration request online in digital format which assists in keeping administrative cost low for registrations.
Of course, there are administrative fees for every work getting registered. The charges vary as per the length of registration procedure. Click here to see a list of entire options and charges.
Payments are accepted online using the safest payment processor namely WorldPay. You can use multiple credit cards and as well as debit cards, depending on currency you select for making the payment. WorldPay is a part of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Plc and uses highly advanced security measures so as to protect your sensitive payment information.
GCR accepts payments in the following currencies:
In case you don’t see your local currency in the list, you can choose a currency other than the ones mentioned above to make the payment because your debit or credit card company will deal with currency exchange on your behalf.
Yes, we do. The files you attach should be more than 10MB. In case of larger file than 10MB, you must shrink the size of file. In case you cannot shrink the file to the desired size, you can divide the file into 2, 3 4 or more files as needed; for example, in case of a book, you can divide it in chapters. If you divide the files, you will be required to pay fee for each file separately. In case of non-textual files, you can consider submitting the file in textual form. E.g. in place of submitting a recorded speech, you can transcribe it and submit the speech in textual form. The same process can be applied for a song.
You can check the file size on your computer by making a right-click on it; when you click, you will see a window and in menu you can see an option namely ‘Properties’. Now click on ‘Properties’ and you will see the file size details along with some other information.
You can send the files for registration with the below mentioned extensions:
In the latest versions of Microsoft Windows, at times it becomes quite tricky to see file extensions. There are common file extensions and types:
In case you are still not sure what the extension is of your file, you can attach the desired file in to a new email. As soon as the file is attached, it shows its full name, including extension.
As an alternative, you can find work file on your computer, right-click on it, and select "Open With..." and the following window will show your file name including extension.
In case all tricks remain unsuccessful, you can compress any file with win.rar which will make a file with .zip extension which is always accepted. To perform this action in Windows XP or Vista, make right-click on the desired file and follow ‘Send to’ arrow and select ‘Compressed (zipped) folder’ and it will create a .zip file with your file.
You can surely submit any works in the way you like to be presented. E.g. if you have created a collection of multiple poems which you aim to present to some publisher as a collection of poems, you can register all poems as one single work. You can send the poems in one single file or as zip file; Copyrights will be registered under the title as ‘collection’ but reference to every individual poem will not be included.
In the same way, if you get a website registered, you don’t require registering every webpage individually. You can collect al webpages in a zip file and submit under website’ name.
In case, you aim to present poems as separate works, they are supposed to be registered unconnectedly and the same process is applied websites; therefore, you cannot add several websites or other types of works in one zip file for single registration.
We are sorry because it is not possible to register so since copyrights are applicable for recorded works, so ideas, plan and description are not applicable. However, you might submit a complete plan or abstract and the like and not just a proposed work.
You can make the textual files ready for registration in any of the formats mentioned below:
In case your file isn’t in any of the formats mentioned above, you will need to convert it into any of the abovementioned formats which are acceptable. In general, a file’s format can be converted by applying following steps;
Normally, word processing programs have choice of saving files as .txt or .rtf file. You must remember if you do so, you might lose some formatting, but it may not matter pertaining to copyright registration.
The other choice is to compress the file or files multiple files into a zip file which is also acceptable format.
You must ensure that the file size does not exceed 10MB. Most text remain way under 10MB if there are graphic included. In case file size is too big due to the inclusion of graphics, it is better to remove them if you don’t want them to be copyrighted. If the image is not your original work, you cannot get it copyrighted. In case you created the image, you can think about getting it registered as another work if you are interested in protecting it.
In case the file remains too big, you can compress the file as.zip, or save it as.txt or .rtf since it will save the document in plain text with no formatting like italics and bolding.
You can make the audio/visual files ready for registration in any of the formats mentioned below:
To convert the files and reduce the size, you can apply the same process explained for textual files.
You must ensure that the file size does not exceed 10MB; in case of audio/visual files, it is certainly an issue in most cases. You can deal with this issue if you lower file’s quality or change the format. For example, if the file is large print-quality such as .tiff file, you can decrease image’s size in the first place. If he size has not been considerably, you can decrease resolution. Lastly, you can save the desired file in some more compressed format like .jpeg.
The simple answer is ‘No’. Actually the moment you register very first file of yours, GCR will create an account for you that will record all of your particulars. When you make a request for further registrations, you will just need to log into your account and register a file with same particulars. However, you will need to give details of specific file you want to register. What you will not have to provide is your name, address, etc.
In case you are willing to register some work with other details, you will require separate GCR account providing separate email addresses.
You can also make updates in your account particulars in case you move your house or officially change your name. However, you should not alter the person or organization to which account refers.
GCR usually takes 7 to 15 business working days to protect your work.
The follow-up process is as follows;
The work file is uploaded to GCR’s server in the first place. Then it is transferred from GCR’s server to 2 different computers located at different place; this process normally takes a week from the date of registration and the files deleted from GCR’s server. In the next step, your file is archived in two different CDs or DVDs so as to store at two different places which happens within a month from the date of registration ensuring that our submitted work is not reachable to public at any point.
There is no chance of this happening. The registered files are saved and moved in a digital manner keeping highly confidential between the client and the company.
We do not do so. GCR registration intends to show that you were the rightful owner of the submitted work on the date of submission. It does not intend to show that your work is exclusive. Therefore, your work isn’t checked or compared against any existing work. In fact, registration assists in protection of your work from any copyright infringement by others, but it doesn’t specify that your work doesn’t invade copyrights of others’ works.
As soon as you have registered your original work, you are allowed to place the GCR’s seal on your work showing that it’s been registered with International Copyrights Protection Bureau for Brands. The GCR seal can be utilised only during registration period and it can be just applied to registered works. GCR reference number of the registered work should be shown along with the seal wherever it is placed or wherever any statement is made stating registration. The suggested words for any such statement is as follows:
“International Copyrights Protection Bureau Ref: [Your GCR Serial Number]"
The exact words are non-compulsory, but reference number must be incorporated. Showing GCR seal without compliance of requirements for its use is clear breach of copyrights. The unlawful use of seal will cancel your registration and may also result in legal action.
The seals can be utilised in print as well as online. In print, they might be placed on a manuscript’s cover-page or inlay card of a CD.
When showing GCR seals online, you must use the code given in your account. You mustn’t make use of a print seal online or place seal’s image directly on some webpage, or in email.
You mustn’t change seal of GCR in no way or issue them to any other person. You should not reveal the web address of any seal images of GCR. Putting an image on a webpage or in an email establishes the distribution and is forbidden.
No, you aren’t. In case you give Berne Convention’s certified serial number to the design company, it can add R mark on the logo of yours after certificate’s verification.
The Berne Convention will release registration certificate when it has verified your personal and work’s details and you will receive the certificate within 7 to 10 business days.
If your registration has not expired, all you have to do is sign-in to your account and reprint the certificate at any time you wish. It is to note that GCR doesn’t print and post certificates to ant copyright holders.
Making any amendments in originally submitted information and work after registration is not possible. GCR’s registration objective is to settle on the pertinent dates regarding original profile information and work and record the particulars at registration’s time. Therefore, a registration certificate is a declaration about details of everything given on registration date. Changing the details on your own will not make any impact on originally submitted details and work after registration.
In case you realize that you have made some grave mistake(s) at the time of registration which might distort the purpose of actual information and work, you had better cancel the existing registration without any delay and reregister the work with right particulars and work file. Regrettably, because of already done process of registration, GCR will not be able to repay the received fee.
No, we will not ensure the uniqueness of your work and neither registering the work does so. Registration only proves that you had the work in your possession on registration’s date. Registration helps you defend against any following breach of your copyrights by providing documented proof of your possession of the work earlier than any other person who might copy your work. Nonetheless, Registration is not the evidence that your submitted work is not breaching someone else’s copyrights.
No, it doesn’t because every case is judged on its own available information and evidences. In case your opponent can prove that he/she created the work and is legal owner of it before you can prove it, he/she would claim breach of copyrights. Nonetheless, registering your work will be of assistance to you so as to verify that you were the rightful owner of the work till a particular date which will aid you in the legal affairs.
Yes, you can, but registering the work will only help you in disputes occurring in future pertaining to breaches which take pale after registration date. Therefore, there won’t will be any use in the ongoing cases of breach.
When the expiration date of your work registration is approaching, GCR will send a notification to your specified addresses notifying you about the approaching expiration date of registration. As soon as you receive the notification, you can renew your registration.
In case you miss or skip the renewal process, you will lose the contract and GCR will no more be responsible for the protection of your work.
After the expiration date, you will still have a chance to reregister your work as a new registration.
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