Copyright registration in Anguilla. Anguilla is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. Anguillan cuisine is influenced by the native Caribbean, African, Spanish, French, and English cuisines. Seafood is abundant. The island’s cultural history begins with the native Taino, Arawak, and Carib. Their artifacts have been found around the island, telling of life before European settlers arrived. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Anguilla.
Copyright in Anguilla
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created in a certain material form, regardless of content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, copyright registration is still advised because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has registered copyright in advance will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Anguilla
Anguilla is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Anguilla is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Anguilla will be given the same copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries. The original from Anguilla can be that the work is made and published for the first time in this country or if the author of the work is of Anguilla ethnicity.
While in other countries copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form, registering for copyright in Anguilla is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when copyright is obtained automatically.
When registering, the work – the subject matter of the application gets a date and a time stamp recorded, as well as information about the work and proof of work concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a significantly big amount of money and time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
Documents for copyright registration in Anguilla
To register for copyright protection in Anguilla, the author needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration.
- Two copies of copyrighted work.
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned.
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
Copyright Law in Anguilla
According to the law, copyright in Anguilla protects works like novels, computer programs, plays, sheet music, and paintings. The author of a copyrighted work in Anguilla has the right to reproduce, publish, perform, communicate and adapt his/her work.
The Copyright Act 2002 protects works in Anguilla. While the Act does not protect ideas for work, if the idea is expressed in writing or in any other physical form, it would have been protected since that moment.
You can see a list of Anguilla IP firms here.