Copyright for Software

If you develop your own software, it’s worth­while re­gis­ter­ing it with the In­tel­lec­tu­al Property Office so that you’re protected. If you don’t register and therefore can’t put the © on your work, you’re protected non­ethe­less. You auto­mat­ic­ally own the copyright which means no-one else can do anything with your work without first seeking per­mis­sion. But if someone does happen to infringe on your copyright, it’s your re­spons­ib­il­ity to file a lawsuit and have a judge prevent the other party from using or sharing your creation and pay any losses you have sustained.

You cannot file a lawsuit without being re­gistered with the UK In­tel­lec­tu­al Property Office. If you decide to hold off on the re­gis­tra­tion to see whether an in­fringe­ment actually occurs, you’ll then have to rush though the process which will prove more expensive as 'ex­ped­ited re­gis­tra­tion­s' costs several hundred pounds.

A re­gis­tra­tion ap­plic­a­tion contains three elements: a completed ap­plic­a­tion form, a filing fee, and a full copy of the software’s source code that you want to register. Fact sheet P-28 provides in­form­a­tion on how to complete the process. You can complete the process online on the UK Copyright Service website. The ap­plic­a­tion is straight­for­ward and asks for this basic in­form­a­tion:

• The title of the work
• Who created the work and when
• Who owns the copyright

The cost for each work that you want to register varies based on re­gis­tra­tion period, which can be either 5 or 10 years per work. You can request paper copies of the re­gis­tra­tion to be sent through the mail, otherwise the entire process can be carried out online. Work is submitted over an encrypted con­nec­tion and securely saved to prevent un­au­thor­ised access to keep submitted files protected. Future sub­mis­sions or amend­ments to submitted files can be made as re­gis­tra­tion updates, but with a fee. These sub­mis­sions will also be processed as the original sub­mis­sion and treated as their own separate re­gis­tra­tion.

It’s not just the actually copying of source code that’s protected, but also the structure, sequence, and or­gan­isa­tion of the computer software. This stops third parties from being able to just change the source code slightly and end up with the same outcome as with your software and not count that as copyright in­fringe­ment.

If your software is re­gistered, you could be entitled to sig­ni­fic­ant com­pens­a­tion payments for your works if they are infringed upon. If you suspect that this is the case, you should gather a copy of the in­fringing work as well as a copy of the re­gistered version of your own work, and any other dated documents proving your work’s re­gis­tra­tion. As well as the option of fining the in­fringers, there are other remedies such as temporary and final in­junc­tion relief to make sure no other in­fringe­ment can happen in the future. The costs and attorneys’ fees are sometimes enough to make the infringer come to a set­tle­ment more quickly before the costs rise and this means you won’t have the hassle of going through the courts.

Note that copyright pro­tec­tion is only valid for the version of the software that you re­gistered, so every time you update the software you need to register the new version with the IPO.

As well as copy­right­ing your software, you can also patent it. Patent pro­tec­tion covers even more rights including the ideas that your software covers, whereas copyright only covers the actual product. Since patent pro­tec­tion involves expensive and long-term pro­ced­ures, it’s worth getting legal advice before you begin. Your software must be useful, non-obvious, and novel to be con­sidered pat­entable. It’s also crucial that you are the true inventor and aren’t filing on behalf of someone.