With the ease of access to content over the internet, creators (“authors”) find importance in obtaining intellectual property protection in the United States and abroad.

Copyright laws are national in nature. This means that whether protection is afforded to a work is generally dependent on the laws of the territory in which protection is sought. However, there are a number of international treaties which govern copyright protection for literary and artistic works across borders. One such treaty is The Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, otherwise known as the Berne Convention. Currently, there are 177 contracting countries out of 195 countries in the world. The United States became a contracting country in 1989.

Under the Berne Convention contracting countries must afford nationals of other contracting countries reciprocal copyright protection. The three basic principles under the Berne Convention are that:

• Works originating in one contracting state must be given the same protection in a second contracting state as would be given to the nationals of that second contracting state
• Protection must not be conditional upon compliance with any formality, as such no registration or notice is required for protection to be afforded in a contracting country
• Protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work

So, what steps does a U.S. author need to take to ensure protection internationally?

Because no formalities are required in order to be afforded reciprocal protection, an author of a US copyrighted work is not required to register the work in a contracting country in order to be afforded protection in that contracting country. While no formalities are required, there are practical steps that could be taken to improve a U.S. copyright owner’s enforcement position.

The Berne Convention provides U.S. copyright owners with the basis to enforce their rights in foreign territories. However, if the copyright infringement occurs solely outside of the United States, any copyright infringement lawsuit may need to be brought in the courts of the foreign country and the foreign jurisdiction’s copyright laws will apply.

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To learn more about international copyright protection, contact a copyright attorney.

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