Most people register a copyright the week they discover someone copying their work. By then the most valuable remedies are usually gone.

The short answer: register before you launch, or within three months after you first publish. A registration made after the copying starts still lets you sue. It usually doesn't get you statutory damages or attorney's fees for that infringement.

Two separate rules

Rule one: you need a registration to sue. For a United States work, "no civil action for infringement of the copyright … shall be instituted until … registration of the copyright claim has been made." 17 U.S.C. § 411(a).

In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. 296 (2019), the Supreme Court held that registration "has been made" when the Copyright Office registers the work, not when the owner files the application. If you haven't registered, you wait for the Office to act before you can file suit. Ordinary processing takes months. Expedited "special handling" is available for pending litigation, for a substantial extra fee ($800 as of November 2026).

Rule two: late registration costs you remedies. This is 17 U.S.C. § 412, and it's the one that changes the economics.

What § 412 says

No award of statutory damages or attorney's fees is available for:

  1. infringement of an unpublished work that commenced before the effective date of its registration, or
  2. infringement that commenced after first publication and before the effective date of registration, unless the registration is made within three months after first publication.
Situation Statutory damages and fees?
Registered, then infringement begins Yes
Published, infringed, then registered within three months of first publication Yes
Published, infringed, then registered more than three months after first publication No
Unpublished, infringed, then registered No
Any of the above Actual damages, the infringer's profits, and an injunction remain available

The three-month window helps only published works. An unpublished work gets no grace period. If a draft, a beta, or a private video library leaks and is copied before you register, § 412 bars statutory damages for that infringement.

Why these remedies matter so much

Statutory damages let a court award $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, as the court considers just, and up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement. 17 U.S.C. § 504(c). You don't have to prove what you lost.

Actual damages require proof of your lost sales or the infringer's profits attributable to the copying. For a copied course, a cloned website, or a lifted codebase, that proof is often thin, and the expert testimony to establish it is expensive.

Attorney's fees can be awarded to the prevailing party. 17 U.S.C. § 505; Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., 510 U.S. 517 (1994); Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 579 U.S. 197 (2016). Federal copyright litigation routinely costs more than the actual damages at stake in a small case.

Together they decide whether a demand letter gets taken seriously. An infringer facing a timely registration is looking at a per-work damages range and your legal bill. An infringer facing an untimely one knows you'd have to prove real losses at your own expense.

The effective date is the filing date

The effective date of a registration is the day the Copyright Office receives a complete application, deposit, and fee, as long as the Office later accepts them. 17 U.S.C. § 410(d).

So the months of processing don't cost you anything under § 412. File a complete application today, and infringement that starts tomorrow is covered, even if the certificate arrives next spring.

"Commenced" means the first act

When infringement is ongoing, courts measure from when it started. In Derek Andrew, Inc. v. Poof Apparel Corp., 528 F.3d 696 (9th Cir. 2008), the defendant began infringing before registration and kept going afterward. The Ninth Circuit held that the first act in a series of ongoing infringements of the same kind marks the commencement, so the post-registration acts didn't qualify for statutory damages either.

You can't register after discovering the copying and then collect statutory damages for the copies made the following week. For that infringer and that work, the remedy is generally lost.

When to file

  • Software: before public release, and again at major versions.
  • Website content: at launch, and after substantial rewrites.
  • Videos and courses: before launch. Unpublished videos can also be registered in groups of ten. See Copyright registration of videos and online courses.
  • Anything already published: within three months of first publication if you still can. If you've missed it, register now anyway. The registration protects you against every infringement that starts after its effective date.
  • Work you're sharing before release (with beta testers, investors, or prospective partners): register first. Unpublished works have no grace period.

What late registration still gets you

  • the right to sue, once the Office acts
  • an injunction against continued infringement, under 17 U.S.C. § 502
  • actual damages and the infringer's profits
  • statutory damages and fees against any new infringer who starts after the effective date
  • if registered within five years of first publication, the presumption that the copyright is valid, under § 410(c)

You also keep the claims that don't depend on § 412 at all, including a small-claims proceeding before the Copyright Claims Board, where damages are capped.

Practical takeaways

  • Registration is cheap. A timely registration can be worth six figures in leverage.
  • The deadline is the start of the infringement, which you can't predict. File early.
  • The filing date controls, so a pending application protects you.
  • Three months after first publication is the last safe moment for a published work. There's no safe moment after a leak of an unpublished one.

If you've found a copy of your work online and aren't sure what your registration status lets you recover, I'm glad to take a look.

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Related resources

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Copyright Office practices and fees change, and the law varies by circuit; confirm current requirements at copyright.gov and consult qualified counsel about your situation.