Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

I submitted songs to the copyright office today.

They wont have a registration/certificate number for at least 4 months and they will send the certificate after 6 months.

Question: How soon can I safely play my songs to prospective music publishers? Can I do it now because the copyright office has my date of registration on file now (And I have an email copy from them of all songs they received from the upload)?

Thanks


Asked on 10/30/09, 7:01 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark Torche Patwrite Law

Dear Songwriter,

You already own the copyright. The copyright was yours as soon as you created the songs. The process of registration just adds to your rights such as the right to sue for infringement and perhaps most importantly, you can rely on effective notice rather than actual notice since once registered, it is assumed that the infringer had knowledge of your copyright rather than having to prove actual knowledge. But again, you already own the copyright and you do not need to wait until you have the certificate.

Good luck,

Mark David Torche, Esq.

Patwrite LLC

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Answered on 11/04/09, 7:14 pm


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