HOW TO COPYRIGHT A BOAT HULL DESIGN by ResearchCopyright.com

In the United States, whenever a work is completed in a tangible form, either as a physical item or as a piece computer code, it is under copyright protection. This is no different for the designs of boat hulls.

Many people register their works with the U.S. Copyright Office so they have a public record of the copyright and a certificate of registration. A public record of copyright will assist with copyright infringement litigation, protecting the defendant or the plaintiff because shows the date the US Government decreed the copyright holder's work.

Actually, the ability to copyright the design of a boat hull is a recent development. As part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, it made it so that the designs of boat hulls could be protected.

To register a copyright in the United States, you must file an application for your tangible work(s) in question. A basic Copyright Application includes three elements, which are:

1. The completed application form.

2. The filing fee.

3. A non-returnable deposit of the work being registered (A copy of the hull design).

Note: The non-returnable deposit process is a little bit different than for most other works. Images of the hull design must be either high quality black and white or color photographs or drawings from enough angles to clearly show the full appearance of the hull design. The paper for these images is to be on plain white paper that is 8 1/2" by 11" and unlined. There cannot be more than two images per sheet. Photographs are to be on double weight photographic paper and must be of excellent quality. The fee for filing includes the processing fee for three pages of deposit material. More pages can be submitted by each page is subject to a processing fee. The boat hull design copyright form is D/VH and must be registered via a paper form.

When the Copyright Office receives your application, your copyright becomes active on the day the Copyright Office receives the three items, no matter how long the Office takes to process the work and mail the certificate of registration.

The forms needed to register a boat hull designs are available on the website, but can also be sent by postal mail upon request. For boat hull designs, you must use Form D/VH. The fee for this type of registration at press time is $220, payable by check made out to Register of Copyrights. Form D-VH/CON is used for continuing the application if needed.

Here is the address to send your paper applications and hard copies to the department that handles this registrations:

Dept. D-VH

Vessel Hull Registration

PO Box 71380

Washington, DC 20024-1380

You must make sure the ZIP is set to 1380 so it is routed to the correct branch of the Registration Office. Failing to do that may make processing take longer.

Remember: your copyright is effective as soon as you create piece of work. If you register with the U.S. Copyright Office for extra legal protection, your work is also effective immediately. You may place the following elements somewhere on the boat:

2. The year the boat was first created.

3. The name of the copyright owner.

Your copyright statement may look something like this: "© 2011 John Doe." The most important element, of course, is the copyright symbol. You may use a symbol, the word "copyright" or "(C)" to display copyright protection.

You should know how long U.S. copyright protection lasts. If the work was created after January 1, 1978, the copyright lasts for the author's life plus 70 years. Any works "made for hire," anonymous, and pseudonymous works (unless the real author's identity is listed in the Copyright Office's records), the duration is 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the creation of the work, whichever comes first.

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