WHAT CANNOT BE COPYRIGHTED? - PART 4

There are some things that cannot be copyrighted. The following list covers the most common ones.

1. Ideas, plans, methods or systems. When presenting an idea for publication, only that author’s interpretation or expression of that idea can be copyrighted. For that reason the same ideas may be used as long as you express them in your own unique way.
2. Ideas or procedures for doing, making or building things.
3. Scientific or technical methods or discoveries.
4. Business operations or procedures.
5. Mathematical principles, formulas, and equations
6. Any sort of concept, process, method of operation, or plan of action.
7. General idea or outline, or title of a radio or television program.
8. Names, titles, and short phrases or expressions, such as: names of products or services; names of business, organization or groups (including a group of performers); names, pen names, or stage names; titles of works; and catchwords, catch phrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions. For that reason you do not have to worry about whether or not someone else has already used the title you have selected—they probably have. And there is nothing you can do about it if someone else uses one of your titles. The exception is names that have become trademarks.
9. Even if you register a copyright, it does not prevent you from revising the material or even renaming it. However, the original copyright will only protect how it was written originally. If you want to protect subsequent versions, they will need to be copyrighted as “derivative works.” Since a title cannot be copyrighted, you do not have to register a title change as a derivative work. Instead you file a supplementary registration on Form CA. Note that in most cases, neither the original registration or these supplementary ones are necessary.
10. If a work was copyrighted as an unpublished manuscript, you may apply for a new copyright when it is published.