With the current backlog of registrations in the Copyright office, it’s especially important to get your works into the que for registration as soon as possible. The agency processes applications on a first-in, first-out basis.

Here, however, is yet another good reason to file your copyright registration now. It’ll save you money. According to this report on the U.S. Copyright Office Website, On August 1st, many copyright office fees will increase.

Copyright registration is relatively simple, but you may need help from an experienced entertainment- or intellectual property attorney for more complex applications, such as those involving multiple works registered as a ‘folio’, or for musical compositions embodied in recordings (essentially two different works).

Even after the fee increases, copyright registration is still one of the most affordable ways an artist or author can protect herself against the losses that can be suffered from unauthorized copying of her work.

Now’s the time folks. Call me if you need advice about copyright registration or any other intellectual property protection issue.

Even more fortunate, however, is that my client caught this very quickly after the infringer adopted the name. (within days of its first use on a merchant reviews website).  In my post on the subject last month, Owners of intellectual property have a duty to “police” their trademarks and copyrights, and to take steps against infringers promptly, or they may lose their rights. So it’s a good thing this client had his ear to the ground, and learned of this situation before it was too late.

Now, many trademark owners engage the services of Trademark search companies to monitor their trademarks, and alert them when any confusingly similar marks appear in public records, databases and on the internet. This service, unfortunately, can be very expensive, and is often impractical for smaller businesses and individuals.

So, how did my client find out about this infringer so quickly? Simple, he set up “Google Alerts” to notify him by email anytime a specified search term (in this case, the band’s name) appeared on the web.

I think it’s a good idea for anybody who’s got a product or a “brand” to set up these kinds of alerts to notify them every time they’re mentioned on the web. Think of how useful it can be to know when customers, vendors or others are talking about your business. Artists in the entertainment industry are themselves, the “brand”, so they should plug themselves in to get alerts about reviews, blog posts, and other mentions of their names. It’s also a good idea to set up alerts for other spellings, sound-alikes, or confusingly similar phrases, so you’re sure to catch everything.

While Google Alerts aren’t as comprehensive, or targeted as what you’d get from a trademark search firm or PR clipping service, they’re a pretty good no-cost alternative. With Google Alerts, whenever you catch someone infringing your brand, trademark, or other intellectual property, you’ll be ready to contact your friendly neighborhood entertainment lawyer to protect your interests.