Registration of a work/copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is typically not required in order for the creator of copyrightable material to have legal rights to the work.  However, registration creates certain additional legal rights and protections to the copyright owner that the owner would not otherwise have.

Registration of a copyright is required in order to be eligible to file a civil action for infringement of a United States work/copyright.  If a certificate of registration is issued by the U.S. Copyright Office for an eligible work (original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression) within five years of its first publication, the certificate of registration will be treated in any infringement action as rebuttable proof of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated on the certificate.  Alternatively, if a certificate of registration is not issued for a copyright within five years of its first publication, the evidentiary significance of the certificate in a copyright infringement action will be left to the discretion of the court.  Further, a copyright owner will only be eligible to recover statutory damages and attorney’s fees in a copyright infringement action if the eligible work was registered as a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office before it was infringed.  Certain remedies against infringing copyright imports through the U.S. Customs Service or the International Trade Commission are only available if the copyright has been registered.  Compulsary licensing fees for use of certain copyrighted material may only be collected by the copyright owner as shown in the records of the U.S. Copyright Office.  Finally, registration of an eligible work provides constructive notice of the copyright to possible infringers through the U.S. Copyright Office’s recording system.