Peace of mind protection against copyright infringement and plagiarism
Secure
Registering your work with the UK Copyright Service ensures that independent evidence of your copyright claim is always available; at home and abroad.
Safe
We treat information about you and your work as confidential. Strict policies governing the storage of data ensure that you are in charge, and your data will never been sold or shared with anyone.
Protected
In the event of a legal claim, registration provides the very best content and date evidence you need to help prove copyright ownership and protect your work against infringement.
Secure, worldwide protection
Our copyright registration service provides strong evidence designed to protect your rights worldwide.
Our high service standards and strong policies safeguard all works deposited with us.
Please see our service standards page for full details.
Infringement protection
In the event of any infringement of your work, we can provide evidence you can use to assist in your case. This may take the form of notification, certificates, or the production of a duplicate of the registered item to prove content.
How to registrations works
- Register
Initial registrations can be made for 5 or 10 year periods.
A registration creates a dated evidence record in your name proving that the evidence you submitted existed at that point in time. - Update
If your work changes after registration our registration update facility allows you to easily add new versions of your work to the stored evidence; with each dated submission you build up a record of how your work has evolved over time.
- Renew/extend cover period
After the initial 5 or 10 year period, if you need the evidence to be kept for longer you can extend the cover
If your work is infringed at any point during the registration period you can call on us to provide evidence (typically copies of your deposited work) to establish the date and nature of your claim and help prove your case.
How do we compare?
The following chart depicts how the commonly sited alternatives compare to registering your work with the UK Copyright Service.
| UK Copyright Service | Posting to yourself | Bank or solicitor | Commercial envelope systems | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provides independent evidence | ||||
| Managed backups | ||||
| Always retains work for future disputes | ||||
| All backups encrypted | ||||
| Contractual contingency measures in place | ||||
| Strict confidentiality | ||||
| Registration update facility |
Items marked (Unknown) we are unable to verify, or may depend on provider. Items marked (Not Applicable) are not relevant for the method assessed