When you get your copyright registered with the United States Copyright Office with the Library of Congress, you are creating a legal document, a record, of the details of the particular document you have created and are claiming the rights to it. Registration of your project is not really a requirement; you don’t need it to reserve your rights. If you choose to get your copyright registered, anyway, it does entitle you to some benefits.

When you register your copyright, you can take advantage of things like establishing a public record to your copyright claim. It will skip the process for you, as an infringement suit can only be filed in court if the registration is in order. If you file within a certain time period, you have the right to statutory damages and attorney’s fees and not just actual damages and profits. On top of this, the registration of the copyright allows the creator and official owner of the copyright to record the registration and you are entitled to certain protections against the importation of copies.

Registration may be created at any time, so you can get a copyright registration immediately after finishing, five months, five years, or 50 years from now. If your work becomes published, you do not need to get an additional registration, though you can if you would like to. With these benefits, it might be worthwhile to you to get your projects copyrighted. These are all benefits that you would get if you were to copyright your work with the Copyright Office, depending on your registration and the work that you submit to be copyrighted.

If you are an artist, a musician, a writer or any other creator of creative projects, you might consider going ahead and getting your work copyrighted. This is especially true if you make a living off of your work. When you do, you’ll be entitled to more money if you should ever have to go to court over someone infringing on your copyright. It might take some time to go through the process, but in the end you might find it worth it.