What type of relief can you get for copyright infringement if you have not registered the material?

Question

I have found that my artwork is being commercially used without my permission. I never filed my artwork with the U.S. Copyright Office. What types of relief and/or damages can I sue for?

Answer 1

Your work is already copyrighted - you need not register it to have full legal claim to it. However, you need to have a way to prove it in court. Go to www.copyright.gov.

Answer 2

You have copyright protection from the time the work was created. If the infringer contests your claim, then the lack of registration will not help your case. Say the infringer claims to have come up with the illustrations by their own effort and invention, then you would have to prove how instead they stole it from you, which might not be easy, depending on how distictive the work is and how it might have been distributed.

most infringers though are willing to admit to taking items inadvertently. again, the lack of registration will limit your legal remedies. first you can only sue for the actual damage that their use caused you. and second you can stop them from future use. either way that usually does not come to much money for you, might not even cover attorney fees.

The best outcome usually is to settle out of court, where they would pay royalties for the use without making an admission of theft or concession of ownership. your call.

Answer 3

Copyright laws were put into effect to protect us from the theft of our original ideas and to furnish proof that we are indeed the author of the work. Unless you have absolute proof of the date that you produced the artwork you probably have no recourse. It's your word against theirs. Get your work copyrighted in the future. If you think you can prove that this person stole your work, then hire an attorney and proceed with a suit.

Answer 4

Before litigation, you might want to see if you can work out an arrangement with the offender, i.e. get paid for the useage.

Here's a site with advice:
http://www.artbusiness.com/reprosuit.html

Answer 5

do you have photos of it from before it was used? was it in a show or display? In other words, can you prove you had it on a certain date? If so, you need not have registered it.