Postal registration formats

Because copyright exists regardless of format, to register three dimensional items it is only necessary to include photographs or images of the work. Photographs are perfectly adequate to record the nature, content and design of your work. At least one picture should show the entire work, and close ups of any specific or intricate detail should be included where applicable. It is a good idea to include something in the images that gives an idea of scale, a person or a ruler are common choices.

Board games can be registered by submitting the following with your application form:

• Rules of the game,
• Description of the game - The goal, concepts, etc.,
• The design of the playing area,
• The design of any cards, counters, player pieces etc.,

Computer files, scanned images, paper prints are admissible for all features above.

Although copyright does not directly protect these items, (it protects the content of the document registered rather than the idea itself), many inventors find it valuable to register documents detailing their ideas and inventions prior to obtaining a patent. This is because a copyright registration is much faster than a patent application, and ensures that the work has some protection in the short term, and may be helpful in the event of problems during the patent process.

Names, titles & phrases are not copyright items in their own right and cannot be registered, and many applications are rejected for this reason. Logos however can be registered as long as they combine the name with a design element and do qualify as copyright works, the registration also provides some evidence that you were there first.

Although more expensive, companies should also consider registering a trademark, more information on trademarks can be found via:

UK Patent Office www.patent.gov.uk

Office of the European Union http://oami.europa.eu/

Our intellectual property rights page also explains the different types of intellectual property, and the types of work they apply to.

Website are actually a very common thing to register, but often cause confusion. The basic rule is that you should submit to us the same files that you would place on your web server

If you are using Front Page, Dreamweaver or similar editing software, it is advisable to publish the website to a local folder on your system then use a copy of this folder to register the work, this will normally ensure that all files are included with the registration.

For postal registrations, the best option is to send a copy of the entire site on a CD or floppy disk(s) along with the registration form.

If you register using the online registration facility, then we recommend that you use an archiver such as WinZip, WinRar/Rar, 7-Zip, StuffIt, or Tar to combines all the files into a single archive file which you then upload during registration. This will ensure that the directory structure of the site is preserved.

Compressed files

We accept any compressed files, although we recommend that a standard format (i.e. zip, mpg) is used. With all electronic files you should choose common formats to ensure software to read the files will be available in the future.

Encrypted (password protected) files

We will accept, but do not recommend encryption, as it will normally mean that we cannot verify the validity of the files.

If you are still unsure, contact one of our service advisors, who will be happy to discuss your needs.