Copyright

Copyright Attorney in Dallas, Texas

Registration, ownership agreements, takedowns and infringement claims for Dallas agencies, studios, software teams and design businesses.

A copyright attorney registers creative work with the Copyright Office, sorts out who owns work made by contractors and employees, and pursues or defends infringement claims. For United States works, registration generally has to be in hand before an infringement suit can be filed, which is why timing matters.

Copyright is automatic. Doing anything about it is not.

Copyright attaches the moment an original work is fixed in a tangible form. Nobody has to file anything, and that is where the confusion starts, because owning a right and being able to act on it are two different states. For a work of United States origin, a registration generally has to be in hand before an infringement suit can be filed at all.

Timing matters even more than the filing itself. The remedies that make a modest infringement case economically worth bringing, statutory damages and recovery of attorney fees, are generally available only where the work was registered before the infringement started, or within three months of first publication. Register after you discover a problem and you are usually left proving what you actually lost, which is expensive to establish and frequently worth less than the cost of proving it.

The practical lesson for a Dallas business that produces work routinely is to register in batches, on a schedule, while everything is still timely, rather than reactively when something goes wrong.

Who this usually matters to

Dallas has a deep bench of businesses whose entire output is copyrightable and whose contracts frequently do not say so:

  • Agencies and studios producing campaigns, film, and design for clients, where the deliverable and the underlying work need separating.
  • Photographers and videographers, whose images are the single most copied category on the internet and whose claims live or die on registration timing.
  • Software and product teams, where code written by contractors is often the most valuable asset and the least documented.
  • Architects and engineering firms, whose plans and drawings carry their own protection.
  • Publishers, musicians, and course creators, whose catalogue is the business.

The ownership problem nobody finds until diligence

Paying for work does not always mean owning it. A work created by an employee within the scope of their employment generally belongs to the employer. A work created by an independent contractor generally belongs to the contractor, invoice paid or not, unless there is a signed written agreement transferring it.

That gap is usually discovered years later, when an investor, an acquirer, or a lender asks the company to confirm it owns its own website, its own logo artwork, its own codebase. At that point the contractor has every reason to negotiate. We fix these, and we would much rather paper them correctly at the start, which costs a fraction of the repair.

When someone has taken your work

There is a ladder here, and most matters should not start at the top of it.

  1. Takedown notice. Sent to the platform or host rather than the infringer. Fast, inexpensive, and for straightforward copying of images or text it is frequently the end of the matter.
  2. Demand letter from counsel. Carries weight a self-sent email does not, sets out what you are prepared to do, and often converts into a licence rather than a fight. Our page on cease and desist letters covers what belongs in one.
  3. Infringement suit. Filed in federal court, and for a Dallas business that means the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. It needs a registration and an honest assessment of what is recoverable.

If you are on the receiving end of a claim, the same ladder applies in reverse, and the first step is not to answer it yourself. Fair use, independent creation, licence scope, and the validity of the registration are all real defences, and they are decided by facts that are easy to concede accidentally in a reply email.

Copyright protects expression; trademark protects identity. A name, a slogan, or a short phrase is not copyrightable no matter how much work went into it, and belongs on the trademark side. A logo can sit in both systems at once: trademark as the identifier customers recognize, copyright in the artwork itself where it carries enough original creative expression. Getting this distinction right early stops businesses paying for the wrong protection and believing they are covered. The broader map is on our Dallas intellectual property page.

Working with us

Intellectual property is the whole of our practice. The firm has been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 2008, and our lead litigator, Brandon Leavitt, is admitted to practise in all four Texas federal district courts, so a copyright matter that turns into a lawsuit stays with the firm that already has the file.

Consultations are free and quotes are in writing before work starts. Our Dallas office is at 3838 Oak Lawn Avenue, Suite 1000, Dallas, TX 75219, on the corner of Oak Lawn Avenue and Blackburn Street. Call 844-728-3680, the Dallas line on 817-522-4035, or use the contact page, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm CST.

Common questions

Frequently asked

Do I have to register a copyright to own it?
No. Copyright exists the moment an original work is fixed in a tangible form, with no filing required. Registration is what lets you act on it. For a United States work, a registration generally has to be in place before an infringement suit can be filed in federal court, and the most valuable remedies depend on having registered in time.
Why does the timing of registration matter so much?
Because statutory damages and attorney fees, the two remedies that make a small infringement case worth bringing, are generally available only if the work was registered before the infringement began, or within three months of first publication. Register after you find the infringement and you are usually left proving actual damages, which is slow and often worth less than the fight.
A contractor built our website and logo. Who owns it?
Often the contractor, unless there is a written assignment. Work made by an employee within their job generally belongs to the employer, but an independent contractor keeps the copyright by default even after you pay the invoice. This surfaces during funding diligence or a sale, at the worst possible moment. It is fixable, and far cheaper to fix before the contractor has a reason to negotiate.
Someone copied our photos and site copy. What are the options?
Usually in order of cost: a takedown notice to the host or platform, which is fast and often enough; a demand letter from counsel, which carries more weight and can open a licensing conversation; and an infringement suit, which needs a registration and a realistic view of what can be recovered. We will tell you which of those your situation actually justifies.
Can I copyright my business name or logo?
A name, short phrase, or slogan is not protected by copyright; that is trademark territory. A logo can carry a copyright in the artwork itself if it has enough original creative expression, and separately a trademark as a source identifier. Most brands need the trademark and treat any copyright in the artwork as a second, narrower layer.
How long does copyright protection last?
For a work by an individual author created today, the author’s life plus seventy years. For a work made for hire, ninety-five years from first publication or one hundred and twenty years from creation, whichever expires first. Older works follow different rules depending on when they were published and whether formalities were met at the time.

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