Businesses in the specialty graphics industry often print graphic designs and text that was created by third party artists and authors who are not employees of the business. The question of whether, and to what extent, these businesses expose themselves to liability for infringing the intellectual property of the third party artists and authors is often asked. Surprisingly, even if a business has paid a third party to create a graphic design or passage of text, the business probably does not have the right to reproduce the third party’s creation unless there is some explicit agreement between the business and the third party that grants the business that right of reproduction. 

 　　The third party artist or author owns a form of intellectual property in his creation known as a copyright. It is possible for the artist or author to exert that copyright against a business that “copies” or reproduces the creation, even if the business paid the third party to create it in the first place! The situation is different if the artist or author is an employee of the business. In this case, the business generally owns the copyrights in any of the employee’s creations, even in the absence of any explicit agreement between the business and the employee. 

 　　A copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship”, including literary, pictorial, artistic, and architectural works, both published and unpublished. To be protected by a copyright the work must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression, such as any form of printing.  Copyright law generally gives the owner of a copyright what is known as a “basket of exclusive rights.” These rights include, for example, the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies of the copyrighted work, or to display the copyrighted work publicly.

　　The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description word for word; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine. 

　　Copyrights may be registered in the U.S. Copyright Office for a nominal registration fee of $45, which is quite a good value considering the protection provided and the ease of registration. If the copyright is registered within three months of authorship, or before infringement of the copyright, the copyright owner may be entitled to what are called “statutory damages” from the infringer, which may cover attorneys’ fees and thousands of dollars in additional awards, without the copyright owner ever having to prove any “actual” or provable damages. Registration is necessary in order to sue for copyright infringement, but many copyright holders do not think about registration until infringement has already occurred. If a copyright is not registered until three months after the work is created, and after infringement, then the copyright owner may only recover actual damages resulting from infringement, and such actual damages are often difficult to pinpoint. Thus, it is a good idea to register copyrights early and often.

　　An important thing to remember about copyrights is that the author or creator of a work is the owner of the copyright immediately upon creation of the work, regardless of whether or not the author ever seeks to register the copyright, and there is no requirement that the author ever do so. Accordingly, if a business pays a photographer to take photographs, for example, the business may own the original physical photographs, but without a copyright assignment the physical photographs are all that the business owns. That is, the business does not have the right to reproduce the photographs, such as by printing reproductions or images that are derived from the photographs.

　　The copyright duration is the life of the author plus an additional 70 years, or, in the case of “works made for hire,” either 95 years from the date of first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is first. With such lengthy lives, copyrights are clearly long term assets that many businesses in the specialty graphics industry should be aware of and cultivate.