In a recent article in Today's General Counsel, Charlotte office managing partner Susan Jackson discusses the importance of copyright registration, considering the growth of artificial intelligence (AI). Copyright infringement will be the next big wave of intellectual property (IP) litigation for years to come, so businesses need to prepare now to protect their IP rights for the future.

Steps companies can take to prevent copyright infringement include:

• Take inventory of your copyrightable works — software, videos, literary works, artwork, and/or photographs.
• Determine what content of your business provides a competitive advantage and what content is most commercially valuable.
• Identify whether your business has license agreements in place such that copying the licensed content could result in the loss of a royalty stream or give rise to an enforcement obligation in a contract.
• Ask yourself what content draws consumers to your products and services and is most closely identified with your business such that you would not want a customer to be drawn to another source or website.

"A business should build its arsenal of copyright registrations now, as AI poses an increasing threat of infringement to original works of authorship having an online presence," says Jackson. "To pursue enforcement of a copyrightable work in a federal court, copyright owners will need a federal copyright registration. Businesses are encouraged to prepare now, enabling them to respond expeditiously should a copyright infringement occur."

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Reprinted with permission.

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