What Copyright Registration Actually Buys You: Statutory Damages, Fees, and the Right to Sue
By Casey Scott McKay ·
Copyright attaches the instant an original work is fixed in a tangible medium, without a filing, a fee, or a government stamp, and yet an unregistered copyright is close to unenforceable in practice. This article explains the two separate gates that registration opens: Section 411(a), which the Supreme Court held in Fourth Estate (2019) bars a suit on a domestic work until the Copyright Office actually registers the claim, and Section 412, which cuts off statutory damages and attorney's fees for any infringement that commenced before the effective date of registration, subject to a three-month grace window measured from first publication. It works through the arithmetic of Sections 504(c) and 505, the evidentiary presumption of Section 410(c), how courts count "works" for statutory damages, and how much of the fee decision Fogerty and Kirtsaeng leave to the district judge. It then takes up inaccurate applications under Section 411(b) and what Unicolors (2022) changed about the knowledge requirement. Throughout, the point is that the calendar, not the certificate, decides what a copyright is worth, and the decisive date is usually one that passed months before anyone thought about litigation. The step-by-step filing mechanics live in the companion guide and checklist.
IP and Technology > Copyright | Article | Published 15 August 2024 - Updated 14 April 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. Copyright attaches the instant an original work is fixed, with no filing and no fee — and yet an unregistered copyright is close to unenforceable. Registration opens two separate gates, and they are not the same gate. Section 411(a) bars suit on a U.S. work until the Copyright Office actually registers the claim, which is what Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. 296 (2019), settled. Section 412 does the harder work: it cuts off statutory damages and attorney's fees for any infringement that commenced before the effective date of registration, softened only by a three-month grace window running from first publication. This article explains both gates, the arithmetic of §§ 504(c) and 505, the evidentiary presumption of § 410(c), how courts count "works" when they award statutory damages, what Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P., 595 U.S. 178 (2022), did to the knowledge requirement for inaccurate applications, and where the doctrine is still genuinely open. The filing mechanics are in the companion guide and checklist.
Keywords: copyright registration · 17 u.s.c. 411 · 17 u.s.c. 412 · statutory damages · attorney's fees · fourth estate v. wall-street.com · unicolors v. h&m · prima facie validity · section 410(c) · three-month grace period · effective date of registration · certificate of registration · special handling · group registration · copyright claims board · section 504(c) · section 505 · commencement of infringement · supplementary registration · willful infringement
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