Book People Archive

TVC Research Q&A: Foreign Copyright Searching

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From: TVC Alert Research News
The Virtual Chase
http://www.virtualchase.com
24 August 2006


Research Q&A: Foreign Copyright Searching
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<http://www.virtualchase.com/ask_answer/finding_copyrights_worldwide.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/gjxyf>

Question: After consulting many colleagues, vendors and your helpful
intellectual property primer, I have an unanswered research question.
Is there a way to search for copyrights worldwide? If not worldwide, is
there a resource, such as Dialog's Trademarkscan databases, that allows
for searching by individual country?

John Mark Ockerbloom, Editor of The Online Books Page[1], responds.

John Mark Ockerbloom: There is no comprehensive index of copyrights around
the world.  It would be difficult to create one since, under the Berne
Convention, copyrights are created the instant something is recorded
without registration or other formality.

There are, however, a number of registries of information on certain
copyrights, some of them national and some of them private. For instance,
the U.S. Copyright Office makes available a database[2] of registered
copyrights and renewals that covers 1978 to present.

Similarly, Canada has a copyrights database[3] covering 1991 to present.

Private entities have digitized some pre-1978 U.S. copyright records.
The Catalog of Copyright Entries[4] at The Online Books Page indexes
what is available.

There are also private registries for the copyrights of various authors
and estates.  These indicate where permission inquiries can be sent. See,
for example, Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders[5] (WATCH)
and Authors Registry[6].

Editor: In addition to John's helpful suggestions, see the article, Finding 
Copyrights and Trademarks for Free[7], on The Virtual Chase.

[1] http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
[2] http://www.copyright.gov/records/
[3] http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/app/cipo/copyrights/displaySearch.do?language=eng
[4] http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/
[5] http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu
[6] http://www.authorsregistry.org
[7] http://www.virtualchase.com/articles/finding_copyrights_trademarks.html