Registering Copyright

When you decide to register copyright of your book, you will also want to make sure you keep proof of your work. This is done so that your claim of original work has something to back it up. If there is ever a dispute about who created the work, it may end up in court. You will need evidence from those who saw the work in progress and previous drafts of your work. Some of the evidential items you might want to have would include the following:

Dated drafts and outlines
Dated research records used to create the work
Names of those you shared the work with at different stages
Written records of any agreements made concerning creation of material or ownership of copyright material

The Canadian Copyright Office is handled by the federal government Business Development Centre. You can register either online, by fax or via regular post. The form is on the website at www.bdc-canada.com. The time it takes to register your copyright will depend on whether any revisions or corrections are required, but normally it would be five business days for filing. Under normal circumstances, you should receive your registration certificate within four to six weeks from the time the Copyright Office receives it. Make sure you plan copyright registration into your timeline.

There are currently three price packages for registering copyright – Basic, Standard and Professional Copyright Registration Packages. Each one comes with a different price tag. At the time of this printing the cost of the Basic Package was $118.90, broke down as:

• BDC fee of $50.00 which includes completion of government forms and filling of copyright application
• Government filing fee of $50.00
• Shipping & handling fee of $15.00
• GST $3.90

The website gives the cost breakdown of all price packages. It is full of information and provides the answers to most questions you may have.