The Service
What copyright registration actually gives you.
Copyright protects original creative work the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form. You own the copyright in your manuscript, your artwork, your code, and your photography automatically, without filing anything. So why register?
Because automatic protection and enforceable protection are not the same thing. Without a registration from the U.S. Copyright Office, you cannot file a federal copyright infringement lawsuit. You also cannot recover statutory damages or attorney fees, which are often the only remedies that make enforcement economically viable. Without those remedies, even a clear-cut case of infringement may not be worth pursuing because the cost of litigation exceeds any actual damages you can prove.
Registration before infringement occurs is what unlocks the full set of legal remedies. If you register before someone infringes your work, or within three months of first publishing it, you can seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 per willful infringement plus attorney fees. If you register after infringement has already begun, you are limited to actual damages, which are much harder to prove and typically much lower.
The Creative Work Protection service covers the preparation and filing of a single copyright application with the USCO for one original work. Armani handles the application, advises on the correct authorship and ownership information, and delivers a Rights and Ownership Summary once registration is confirmed.
What's Included
Everything in the flat fee.
Who It's For
For any creator whose work is worth protecting.
The Creative Work Protection service covers a wide range of original works. These are the most common situations.
Process
From intake to registered copyright, step by step.
Submit details about your work: the type of content, your authorship and ownership status, whether the work has been published, and the publication date if applicable. This determines which USCO application type applies and what the filing fee will be.
Armani reviews your authorship and ownership situation before filing. This step matters most for works involving contractors, joint authors, or employer-employee relationships. Getting authorship right on the registration prevents complications when enforcement becomes necessary.
The copyright application is prepared with the correct information and submitted to the USCO along with the required deposit of your work. The registration date relates back to the date of filing, which is your effective date of protection.
The Copyright Office reviews the application. Processing times vary depending on the type of work and current USCO workload. Armani monitors for any correspondence from the Copyright Office and responds promptly to any questions or requests.
Once your registration is issued, you receive your registration number and a Rights and Ownership Summary explaining what your registration covers, what it gives you the right to do, and what to do if someone infringes your work.
Pricing
Two tiers based on authorship. Both flat fee.
The attorney fee is the same regardless of authorship structure. The USCO charges different government fees depending on whether you are the sole author and owner or whether the work involves multiple authors, corporate ownership, or work-for-hire arrangements.
Not sure which tier applies to you? The distinction between Solo Creator and Corporate / Multi-Author depends on how the work was created and who owns it. If contractors or collaborators were involved, see the Work for Hire Advisory page first to confirm ownership before filing. Armani advises on the correct tier as part of the authorship review step.
Get Started
Ready to register your work? Start here.
Complete the intake form below. Armani will review your authorship and ownership situation before filing to make sure the registration is prepared correctly.
FAQ
Questions about copyright registration.
Automatic copyright gives you the right in theory. Registration gives you the ability to enforce it in practice. Without a USCO registration, you cannot file a federal copyright infringement lawsuit. More importantly, if you register before infringement occurs or within three months of first publication, you become eligible to seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 per willful infringement, plus attorney fees. Without registration, you are limited to actual damages, which are often difficult to prove and rarely justify the cost of litigation. Most infringers know this. Registration changes the calculus entirely.
The best time to register is before you publish or distribute your work, or as close to publication as possible. The critical threshold is three months from first publication. If you register within three months of publishing your work, you retain full eligibility for statutory damages and attorney fees even if infringement begins after publication but before you registered. If you register more than three months after publication and infringement has already started, you can only recover actual damages for that pre-registration infringement. Register early, before you share your work publicly, whenever possible.
Copyright registration is available for any original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. This includes literary works such as novels, scripts, and articles; visual works such as paintings, illustrations, and photographs; musical compositions and sound recordings; architectural works; and software and other computer programs. The Creative Work Protection service covers single original works. If you have a collection of related works such as a photo series, a portfolio of illustrations, or a set of unpublished pieces, the Group Registration service may be a more cost-effective option.
The U.S. Copyright Office processing times vary significantly depending on the type of work and the current workload. Online applications for single works can take several months to over a year to process. However, your legal rights in the work are established from the date of filing, not the date the registration is issued. If infringement occurs after you file but before your registration certificate arrives, you are still protected as of your filing date for purposes of statutory damages eligibility. Armani monitors the application and advises on status throughout the process.
Yes, potentially. Under U.S. copyright law, an independent contractor owns the copyright in the work they create unless a written agreement explicitly assigns those rights to you or qualifies the work as made for hire in one of the specific statutory categories. If your contractor created any part of the work without a proper written assignment, there may be a question about who owns those portions. This needs to be resolved before registration because listing incorrect ownership information on a copyright application can create legal complications. See the Work for Hire Advisory service if contractor ownership is unclear, and Armani will advise on the correct ownership structure before filing.
It depends on the degree of human creative authorship in the work. The U.S. Copyright Office requires human authorship to grant copyright protection. Content that is entirely generated by AI without meaningful human creative input is not eligible for copyright registration. However, works that incorporate AI-generated elements alongside substantial human creative authorship may be registrable for the human-authored portions. The Copyright Office has been actively issuing guidance on this issue. Armani advises on the registrability of works with AI-generated components on a case-by-case basis as part of the authorship review step.