Budget Estimator for Copyrights

Many of our clients have asked for a way of estimating what costs and time periods to expect when registering a copyright. This estimator should serve as a guide, and is as good an estimate as we can prepare, but you should realize that the fees you will actually pay may vary widely from these, depending on the individual circumstances of your copyright. You can expect a copyright registration certificate to be received in six months or less, if you file electronically and all goes well. 

Most of our clients prefer to file copyright applications on their own, since the process is much simpler than patent or trademark filings. In most cases, this will not pose any problems.

In more complicated situations, or if you are not comfortable with the process, we will be happy to file the copyright registration application for you. Legal fees will vary based on the time expended, which will depend on the complexity of the task at hand, etc.

• Initial Consultation: $100
• Preparation and filing of application: allow 1 month, although we can usually prepare an application faster. Legal fees for a simple application are $250 per application. For more complicated filings involving multiple samples, computer software, etc., ask for a project fee quote. 
• Copyright office filing fees:  (only the more common fees are listed - other fees may apply to special cases)

• Registration application for a single author of a single work, not made for hire, owned by that single author, submitted online through eCO system $35
• If the application and copy of the work are filed electronically through eCO, but the application does not qualify for the reduced fee - $55 
• Filing on traditional paper forms without barcodes - $85 
• Group Registrations:
  • Contributions to periodicals (Form GR/CP) or database updates: $85
  • Published photographs or automated databases that consist predominately consist of photographs or updates of those databases: Paper: $65; Electronic: $55
  • Group of serials (Form SE/Group): $25 per serial with a minimum of two
  • Group of daily newspapers and qualified newsletters (Form G/DN): $80

• Other Services are billed at up to $425 per hour, plus expenses, on a time spent basis. We can help you with license agreements, non-disclosure agreements, incorporations, etc.
• Trademark Fees and Patent Fees are on separate fee schedules. The current U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official Patent and Trademark fees are also separately listed.

Billing and Fee Policies

• All fees are due when billed.
• We accept VISA and MasterCard. If paying by credit card, please provide the card number, expiration date, account name and billing address, and an authorization to charge your card for a specific amount. 
• We can accept payment by wire transfer - e-mail for details. If you are paying by wire transfer from outside the USA, please add $25.00 to the transfer to cover the incoming bank fees. Also, please be sure to include your name and the matter number and/or statement number in the "comments" on the wire transfer, so that we can correctly apply the payment.  . 
• Amounts unpaid after 30 days will be charged a service charge at the rate of 1.5% per month.
• Returned checks are subject to a $20 fee, plus any applicable bank fees.
• All government fees must be paid by the client when due - we cannot advance fees for clients.
• The charges listed on this page do not include direct out-of-pocket costs incurred on behalf of clients. Clients are responsible for out-of-pocket expenses, such as postage or Express costs, bank fees, telephone fees, copying, draftsman's or foreign agent's fees, etc., in addition to the fees listed above, unless a fee inclusive of such expenses has been agreed to in advance. Expenses are billed at cost - we do not mark up third party bills. 
• Fees are subject to change without notice.

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