The intellectual property you made before breakfast

Picture an ordinary morning. You photograph the light falling across the kitchen table. You write a few paragraphs for a neighborhood newsletter. Before leaving, you adjust a small script you wrote to organize your files. None of this feels like intellectual property.

It is. Photographs, writing and computer programs are all works copyright protects, and the U.S. Copyright Office puts it plainly: "everyone is a copyright owner." You do not need to be a professional, and the work does not need to be impressive. 1

Check the two things copyright needs

Open a folder of things you made yourself: a birthday-card drawing, photos from a walk, a song recording, an unfinished article. For each one, ask two questions.

1. Is it original? You, a human, created it independently, without copying, and it shows at least a small spark of creativity. 1
2. Is it fixed? You wrote it down, saved it, photographed or recorded it, so it lasts long enough to be seen, copied or shared. A tune you only hummed is not fixed; the voice memo of it is. 1 3

If both answers are yes, copyright exists automatically. You file nothing for it to begin. 1

Copyright protects how you express something, never the idea, fact or discovery underneath. Titles, names, short phrases and slogans are not protected either. 1 So your carefully written account of a family trip is protected; the date of the trip and the fact that it happened are not. You own the telling, not the events.

Check who owns it

"I made it" and "I own the rights" are separate questions. Copyright starts with the author, and people who create a joint work together co-own it. 2 Two rules change that starting point:

• Work for an employer. Work an employee prepares within the scope of their job is a "work made for hire": the employer is treated as the author and owns all the rights unless you both signed a written agreement saying otherwise. 2 3
• Transfers. You can transfer copyright, in whole or in part, but a transfer is valid only if it is in writing and signed by the owner. 2

So the newsletter you write on your own time, outside your job, starts out yours, while the marketing copy you write at work belongs to your employer, even when both sit in the same folder on the same laptop. Owning the laptop, the print or the file does not decide who owns the copyright in what is on it. 2

Pick one work and record what you know

You do not have to register everything. Registration is voluntary. 1 Start with one piece of work you would miss if you lost it, or would object to if someone used it without asking. Then:

1. Find the original file and keep a copy somewhere safe.
2. Write down when and how you made it.
3. Note anyone who contributed, and any job, client or collaboration agreement that covers it.

If that work is one you would defend, register it with the U.S. Copyright Office. For a U.S. work, you cannot sue for infringement until the Office has registered or refused your claim, and timely registration keeps certain damages and attorney's fees available. 1 Check the current registration fees on the Office's fee page before you file. 4

Some of your work will stay private, some you will share freely, and some may become part of your living. You have been making things worth protecting for years; now you know what to look for.