Copyright:: International

Copyright protection is extended to creative works by national governments (or, in come cases, regional groups of natins.) Each nation is responsible for determining the rights protected and the duration of copyright.

For contact information for patent offices not listed below, see the WIPO Directory of Intellectual Property Offices (http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/urls.jsp)

Unlike patents, however, international law provides for some automatica protection in nations other than the original copyrighting nation.  See Berne Convention below.

Formally titled, :The Berne Convention for the  for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works", , this treaty was written in 1886, and has been revised several times since then, most recently in 1979.)   The summary below is provided by the Would Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

1) The three basic principles are the following:

(a) Works originating in one of the Contracting States (that is, works the author of which is a national of such a State or works first published in such a State) must be given the same protection in each of the other Contracting States as the latter grants to the works of its own nationals (principle of "national treatment") [1].

(b) Protection must not be conditional upon compliance with any formality (principle of "automatic" protection) [2].

(c) Protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work (principle of "independence" of protection). If, however, a Contracting State provides for a longer term of protection than the minimum prescribed by the Convention and the work ceases to be protected in the country of origin, protection may be denied once protection in the country of origin ceases [3].

The full text of the Berne Convention is also available on the WIPO site.

So, works created in any signatory state are protected in all, iwthout having to register, and even it the country of origina does not protect them.