A copyright is a legal right to have exclusive control over a creative work–the tangible expression of an idea. Copyrights last a long time and don’t require renewal in the U.S.
Copyright is a complex field of law, where court rulings and standard practices change monthly in response to new technologies such as electronic publishing, music and film distribution, and internet searching technologies, among others.
At Wells IP Law, we’ve handled copyright-related projects in the areas of publishing, music, art, and film.
We review author publishing contracts and have also assisted small publishers with setting up new contract templates, including for e-publishing. (Nicholas Wells has published more than a dozen books and has a particular interest in publishing law.)
Our work in the music industry includes representing a GRAMMY(R) award-winning musical group with many types of legal agreements, including location and venue agreements, DVD and CD licensing, copyright licensing, and others. Within the film industry, we’ve assisting our clients with screenwriting agreements, location agreements, production agreements, book-to-film and life-story deals, releases, and SAG negotiations. We also guide our clients to finding help with legal issues related to film financing.