How to copyright something you make and sell

How to copyright something: protection starts when you make it

Copyright in the US does not start with a form. The US Copyright Office says a work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form. A painting is fixed when the paint is on the canvas, a photo when the file is saved, and a design when it is drawn or saved as a file. You do not need to file, pay or add a symbol for that protection to exist.

Registration is a separate step, and registration is voluntary. What registration adds is the ability to enforce the copyright in court: the Office says you need to register if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. Registered works may also be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation, and a registration made within five years of publication counts as prima facie evidence in court.

Copyright lasts a long time. For most works made today by an individual author, protection generally lasts the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

This page covers US copyright, which the US Copyright Office administers. Contracts, business licenses and sales rules around your work vary by state and city. This page is general information, not legal advice.

• Covered: original artwork, illustrations, graphic designs and photos. The Office lists Product Packaging among visual arts works commonly registered.
• Not covered: ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something.
• Not covered: names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. Those can sometimes be protected as trademarks instead.
• Not covered: typeface or mere variations of typographical ornamentation or lettering.

When registering is worth the fee

You do not have to register what you make, and the work is still protected. Registration starts to matter when copying would cost you money and you want the option to act on it.

Because you need a registration if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work, and because registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation, the timing matters. Registering early keeps the most options open. For photographs, the Office strongly encourages you to register your photographs before they are published.

• Register designs you sell in volume, such as a print, sticker or pattern that is your best seller.
• Register work you license to other businesses, where a public record of ownership helps.
• Register photos and artwork you expect others to copy, such as product photos that resellers might lift.
• Skip registration for one-off sketches and work you do not plan to sell or enforce.

How to register a copyright online with eCO

The Copyright Office says online registration through the electronic Copyright Office (eCO) is the preferred way to register basic claims. Every application has three parts: a completed application form, a nonrefundable filing fee, and a nonreturnable deposit.

1. Pick the right application

   Use the Single Application for one work made by you alone and owned by you, and not made for hire. Use the Standard Application for other single works. Use a group option for several photos or several artworks.

2. Create an eCO account and fill in the form

   Log in to the eCO registration system from copyright.gov/registration. The certificate records key facts about the work, including the title of the work, the author of the work, the name and address of the claimant or copyright owner, the year of creation, and whether the work is published.

3. Pay the filing fee

   The fee is $45 for the Single Application and $65 for the Standard Application. The filing fee is nonrefundable.

4. Upload or send the deposit

   The deposit is a copy or copies of the work being registered, and it is not returned. For a group of photos, you submit a digital copy of each photograph.

5. Wait for the certificate

   The effective date of registration is the day that the Office receives in proper form all required elements, so a complete application sets your date even while it waits in the queue. Paying for special handling costs $800 per claim.

How much it costs to copyright something

Copyright registration cost depends on how you file and how many works you put on one application. These are the Copyright Office's own fees for the options a maker is most likely to use.

Example: a maker with 12 published sticker designs could file 12 Single Applications at $45 each, or one GR2D application at $85 if every design meets the group rules. Check the eligibility rules for the group option before you choose it.

How to copyright artwork and designs

Your art is copyrighted as soon as you make it, the same as any other work. To copyright your art in the formal sense, register it as a work of the visual arts. The Copyright Office lists work such as Jewelry Designs Labels (visual aspects) Logos among visual arts works commonly registered, along with Product Packaging.

If you publish a lot of flat artwork, the GR2D group option covers between 2 and 20 published two-dimensional artworks created by the same author, for $85. One application can then cover a whole collection of prints, stickers or illustrations.

A design needs enough original authorship. Familiar symbols and designs, or a simple combination of a few of them, are uncopyrightable and cannot be registered with the Office. A logo can qualify if it is logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship; the name in the logo cannot.

How to copyright your photos

Photos are protected when you take them. To register your photos in bulk, the Copyright Office has two group options: GRUPH for unpublished photographs and GRPPH for published ones. Both cost $55 and allow no more than 750 photographs.

• Every photo in the group must be created by the same author.
• The group must be all published or all unpublished.
• For a published group, all photos must be published within the same calendar year.
• Posting a photo is not always publishing it: the public display of a photograph, in and of itself, does not constitute publication.

Product photos are a common case. If you take your own product photos, you are their author, and the Office strongly encourages you to register your photographs before they are published.

How to copyright a product

Copyright protects the creative parts of a product: the artwork printed on it, the photos of it, the text on the label and the graphics on the box. It does not protect how the product works. Copyright covers expression, and it does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. The Office's own example says a copyright in a book does not give the author the right to prevent others from employing the system.

The product name and slogan are also outside copyright, because copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. Brand names are a trademark question, which the trademark vs copyright guide covers.

Poor man's copyright and the © notice

Poor man's copyright is the practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself. The Copyright Office says there is no provision for it in copyright law, and that it is not a substitute for registration. A dated email or envelope adds nothing that registration would give you.

A copyright notice is also optional. It is optional for unpublished works, non-U.S. works, and works published on or after March 1, 1989. A notice usually has the copyright symbol or the word “Copyright,” the name of the copyright owner, and the year of first publication, for example "© 2026 Jane Maker". It tells people you claim the work, but the Office says placing a notice is not a substitute for registration.

Where Nation fits

Questions about how to copyright something