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Copyright doesn't need to be formally asserted for your material to be considered yours. However in most parts of the world, the formal copyright statement ensures that you can claim damages if someone misuses your work or worse steals it outright. Here's a straightforward guide to make sure your documents and materials are properly protected. Firstly it doesn't matter where in your document you make your statement, though it is standard to do this either on the page following the title or in the very last page. It is standard practice to place your notice just prior to any trademark notifications you want to make, in the case where you are also covering third party contributions or trademarks it's likely that your material is going to be read through by a lawyer or two so keeping things simple and accurate can keep the legal fees down too. If your partners haven't provided their statements for trademarks you can often find these on their websites, saving you the hassle of having somebody send you one. A little research can go a long way when it comes to saving time. The Notice Itself The statement doesn't need to be complex; particularly in the case where you intend to reserve all rights. This is when you are not giving permission for others to reproduce your work in any form, or in part. If you do intend to cede any rights you need to clearly identify which rights you are willing to give up and which you wish to retain. It isn't strictly necessary to use the word "copyright" and the symbol © (a c surrounded by a circle) in your documents, but given that many areas of the world only recognise the symbol and many Internet browsers may have problems displaying the symbol it may be safest to include both anyway. Examples Start with: Copyright © by (Insert Your Company Name Here) Followed by: For a work that is published once:
2011, All Rights Reserved For a work reprinted multiple times: 2005, 2008, 2011, All Rights Reserved For a work issued over a period of years: 2005 - 2011, All Rights Reserved Or if you want a more expansive statement of rights you could use something like; "All rights reserved, this document may not be reprinted in whole or in part by any means including but not limited to electronic publishing, mechanical publishing, audio recording, etc. without the explicit written consent of the copyright holder" Whatever you do, try and keep the whole statement on a single page - it's OK to use a reduced font size if you need to.
Nick is the President of http://www.authoring4u.com a specialist consultancy based in Shenzhen China, which helps companies from around the world save time and money in the areas of; technical documentation, Internet presence and marketing and Press Relations. Nick has just written a free e-book "Perfect Press Releases" which you can download for free from the Authoring For You website. So download it today!
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