Canadian immigration laws and procedures. Guide for foreign and Canadian immigration law.

Finally, the entrepreneur should consider the cost required to protect the company’s intellectual property. Copyright registration is available for a nominal fee, while trademark registration is more expensive, and patent protection is quite costly. The legal cost of patent prosecution, correspondence, issuance and upkeep fees may amount to thousands of dollars.

1. Copyright

Copyright protection in Canada is afforded under the Copyright Act. Copyright protection is granting to authors of original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work for a limited period of time. Quality and legality of work are not relevant for copyright protection. Copyright prevents unauthorized copying only, and only protects expressions fixed in a tangible medium. Ideas alone cannot be copyrighted, but an author's unique expression of an idea is copyrightable. The creator of the original work owns the copyright and may transfer his or her right by sale or a gift. An employee who creates a copyrightable work during and within the scope of employment loses his right in favor of the employer. On the other hand, a person who creates a work under written agreement to commission a work is deemed to be the owner of the copyright.

Like the United States, Canada is a party to the Universal Copyright Convention. Thus, each country is committed to giving the same protection to the others copyrighted works as it gives to the works of its own nationals. Unlike the United States, Canada is also a party to the Berne Copyright Convention. As a member of the Berne Union, Canada is committed to a copyright regime that provides automatic protection without formalities for copyrightable works. There is no requirement in Canada to register a copyrightable work or to deposit such a work with any regulatory authority. In Canada registration of copyrightable works is permitted on a voluntary basis and does provide advantages in terms of establishing proof of ownership, especially in the case of assignments of copyright.

Copyright grants the author exclusive rights to the material for the author's life plus 50 years. A copyright holder receives the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform, or display the work. These rights are subject to the “good cause or excuse?and the "fair dealing" doctrines. The good cause suggests that a person may deal with otherwise copyrighted material in a matter of public interest. In contrast, the fair dealing doctrine permits use of copyrighted work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review or newspaper summary.