Copyright registration in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Caribbean island and unincorporated territory of the United States. The economy of Puerto Rico is classified as a high-income economy by the World Bank and as the most competitive economy in Latin America by the World Economic Forum. It is classified by the International Monetary Fund as a developed jurisdiction with an advanced, high-income economy. Furthermore, Puerto Rico ranks highly on the Human Development Index. 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 Puerto Rico.
Copyright in Puerto Rico
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.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.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, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Puerto Rico early 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 made a copyright registration in Puerto Rico 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 in Puerto Rico immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is currently not a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright.
However, this is partly due to the current legal status of Puerto Rico not being a country. Rather, it is more like a state of the United States, a territory outside of the USA’s bloc.
Nonetheless, it is still not recognized until this day as a state in the USA. Therefore, it is not part of the Berne Convention.
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.
Documents for copyright registration in Puerto Rico
To obtain copyright registration in Puerto Rico, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Puerto Rico;
- 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).
The copyright law of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico has a unique legal system that combines aspects of both the civil law legal system used in Spain and the common law legal system used in the United States. It is governed by both U.S. federal law, including federal trademark law, and local law.
US copyright law applies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, but does not apply in American Samoa.
Despite this, the Federal Courts hold ultimate jurisdiction over Puerto Rico’s affairs, similar to any other state within the United States.
You can see a list of Puerto Rico IP firms here.