Reading the Tea Leaves: Practical Insights from Case Law on Software Copyright Registration

AuthorKaren K. Williams - Gregory P. Stein
PositionKaren K. Williams is vice president, head of global trademarks, anti-piracy, copyright, and trade secrets at SAP, the world's largest provider of enterprise application software. She can be reached at ka.williams@ sap.com. Gregory P. Stein is an associate and vice chair of the data privacy and information security group at Ulmer & Berne LLP. He...
Pages26-31
24 LANDSLIDE n May/June 2017
Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 9, Number 5 , a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2017 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This
information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
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Practical
Insights from
Case Law on
Software Copyright
Registration
BY KAREN K. WILLIAMS AND GREGORY P. STEIN
Those new to registering copyrights in software often assume it will be a simple process—after
all, the electronic copyright registration form is a short document with a few options to select,
right? Deciding what to register can be a signicant challenge, however, as can determining
how best to provide some of the information required by the registration application form.
The process requires understanding the scope of protection provided by a registration (which
is critical to determining what should be registered), dealing with claim limitations for derivative
works, and the deposit requirement.
Computer Program Registration Basics
Registration is not required for copyright protection to exist, but it is a prerequisite for ling a lawsuit
in the United States for U.S. works.1 Registration confers other benets as well, including prima facie
evidence of the validity of the facts stated in the certicate if led within ve years after initial publi-
cation,2 and serving as a prerequisite for obtaining statutory damages and attorneys’ fees when other
requirements are met.3
Only one registration is required to protect both the source code and the object code of a computer
program. The source code and the object code are viewed as two representations of one work (the
Karen K. Williams is vice president, head of global trademarks, anti-piracy, copyright, and trade secrets
at SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software. She can be reached at ka.williams@
sap.com. Gregory P. Stein is an associate and vice chair of the data privacy and information security group
at Ulmer & Berne LLP. He specializes in helping businesses navigate complex intellectual property, data
privacy, and cybersecurity issues. He can be reached at gstein@ulmer.com.
Photo: iStockPhoto

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