What an owner has to show
A copyright infringement claim generally requires showing that you own a valid copyright and that the other side copied protected expression from your work. Copying is often proved indirectly, through access to your work combined with similarity, and the similarity has to involve expression rather than ideas or common elements. Registration matters early: for US works, it generally must be completed or refused before a lawsuit can be filed. Whether statutory damages and attorney's fees are available usually depends on whether the work was registered before the infringement began or within a short window after publication, so registering promptly can change the value of a claim considerably.
Building the record
Keep the original files with their metadata, drafts, and anything that shows when you created the work. Capture the infringing use with screenshots, URLs, dates, and copies of products or pages, since online material can vanish quickly. If you have licensed the work to others, gather those licenses, because your usual fees are often evidence of what a use is worth. Note how the other party could have seen your work, whether through your website, a pitch meeting, a prior business relationship, or a public posting. Avoid firing off accusations before you have a plan, as that can prompt deletion or a preemptive lawsuit against you.
Picking the right route
Not every infringement needs a lawsuit. A takedown notice under the DMCA may resolve an online use, a demand letter may lead to a license or payment, and the Copyright Claims Board offers a lower-cost forum for smaller claims, although the other side can opt out of it. Federal court remains the forum for larger disputes and for injunctions. We look at the strength of your ownership and registration, the scale of the use, and who the other party is before recommending where to start. Claims must be filed within a limitation period, so delay carries a cost.
