Clinch Neville Long - internet copyright and trademark lawyer

Your Copyright

1.Creation of your copyright material

Involves keeping all drafts, company employment documents and records of relevant dates

2.Claiming your copyright

You need a ©, record of dates of copyright and the name of the yourself.

e.g. "© 2000 Clinch Neville Long."

3.Protection

Give it a name and preferably a Trademark, respond promptly to theft and passing off.

1. Creation of your copyright material

1.1	The burden of asserting your right will lie with you and you should be in a position to produce evidence of authorship by printing and retaining each step in the process. Those original diagrams, mud maps and the early code duly dated, are extremely valuable as part of your proof of original authorship. Ownership by assignment in writing gives no better title than that of the author so you will still need that evidence of authorship. Do not throw your old records away.
1.2	Joint ownership of your internet site can exist where there are two (2) or more authors and it is not possible to identify the separate parts that were written by any one of the joint authors. Joint ownership can also exists as a result of a transfer by operation law or by agreement or assignment.
1.3	A website produced by joint authors must be a collaboration in which it is not possible for either of the authors to separate out the contribution from that of the other author.
1.4	Where two (2) authors write separate parts of a program, then they own separate copyright in their separate segments.
1.5	A person who provides the diagrams, plans and graphics for the site is entitled to copyright in the end product, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
1.6	Joint owners (not several owners) of the copyright in a site hold as tenants in common and either of them may sue in respect of an infringement.
1.7	Where there is a partnership, and one of the partners writes the whole of the program, then the question of who is the owner of the copyright is one of considerable difficulty and may be determined by a Court if you do not address that matter by the partnership agreement.

2. Claiming your copyright

2.1

A formal claim in writing is not a prerequisite to protection of your copyright in Australia. Please note that such claims are invariably made by almost all authors and publishers of copyright material on a world wide basis and who are you to tempt fate.

2.2

Registration is not required and is not available in Australia to assist enforcement of your copyright.

2.3

You should nevertheless claim your copyright by express notice, stating on the front page (and why not subsequent pages) your name, the year of of authorship or publication and the fact that copyright is claimed using the usual symbol ©.

2.4

This notice should exist on the original document and all copies created from the original document. It should appear on the computer program electronically and physically in all hard copies and it should appear on any and all instruction manuals and materials.

2.5

Legal requirements in some other countries impose an obligation to use a copyright notice and your program could end up being trialled with or without your knowledge in another foreign country.

3. Protection

3.1

Protection resides in protective action in the form indicated above and, if that is not sufficient, then in threatening action against infringers and then in action by recourse to litigation.

3.2

It is the form of expression used in your program which is protected by your copyrights so that a person wishing to appropriate your intellectual property is free to take your ideas and plot. Having so done, the thief might find it difficult to have the benefit of those ideas or plot without stealing your form of expression. The infringer must copy a substantial part of your site, in order that you might enforce your rights against him.

3.3

In order to evaluate the extent of the infringement, you should adopt a 'side by side' comparison between your source code and that of the infringer and from that you must be able to identify substantially similar parts of your code in that of the infringer. If you are tempted to assimilate another author's code or his ideas, then, the same test should be applied in deciding whether you are breaking the law.

2.1	A formal claim in writing is not a prerequisite to protection of your copyright in Australia. Please note that such claims are invariably made by almost all authors and publishers of copyright material on a world wide basis and who are you to tempt fate.
2.2	Registration is not required and is not available in Australia to assist enforcement of your copyright.
2.3	You should nevertheless claim your copyright by express notice, stating on the front page (and why not subsequent pages) your name, the year of of authorship or publication and the fact that copyright is claimed using the usual symbol ©.
2.4	This notice should exist on the original document and all copies created from the original document. It should appear on the computer program electronically and physically in all hard copies and it should appear on any and all instruction manuals and materials.
2.5	Legal requirements in some other countries impose an obligation to use a copyright notice and your program could end up being trialled with or without your knowledge in another foreign country.