1st August 2004

From the 1st of August 2004, the UK Copyright Service is to allow existing clients to lodge updates to existing registrations at a reduced rate.

The new update facility will allow users of the service to lodge updated material that relates to existing registrations. It will store a separate date stamped evidentiary record of the revised work, that is directly linked to an existing registration, whilst maintaining the integrity of evidence relating to the original deposit, and any previous updates.

This will be of great benefit to users with work that changes regularly, (i.e. web site and software designers), also for work that is likely to undergo an evolution after submission, (i.e. the evolution of a written work from first to final draft).

A spokesman for the service said:

“We identified an area where the service could do more to protect certain types of author. Previously, if a work was substantially changed, the copyright owner would need to make a new registration if they wanted the new content to be protected.

Updates are a difficult concept for registration systems, as they exist in a state of both needing to be an independently verifiable dated evidential entity, while at the same time being directly linked to an existing registration. Our Legacy back office systems have had a major update to deal with this, and as you would expect, the strength of evidence still lives up to our exacting standards.

As far as we know, we are the only organisation that offers this facility, so this really is a world first for the service.”