Registering your work in Puerto Rico: what it really protects and what costs $30

It is a Commonwealth registry of moral rights, and that phrase contains the two things people confuse. Commonwealth: its protection is limited to Puerto Rico’s territorial extent, as the page itself says. And moral rights: it does not protect economic rights — what is charged for exploiting the work — but the author’s right that their work not be mutilated, to decide when it is disclosed, and to retract within what the act allows. The federal copyright system is a different thing running in parallel. The page says it clearly: although after 1 March 1989 both federal registration and the copyright notice are optional for preserving the right, they remain of great importance, because absent registration and with the notice omitted or incorrectly used, when a violation arises it will be very hard to vindicate the right in the courts.

The act protects the Puerto Rican author and the foreigner domiciled in Puerto Rico. The work must be presented in person by its author or legitimate rights-holder. And there is a clear list of what is not registrable: mere ideas, concepts, proposals or systems not fixed in a medium of expression contemplated by the act, or fixed in a way that does not meet the legislative intent of protecting the Puerto Rican author’s creativity — a minimum but sufficient level of originality must be met. Also not registrable are works created to advertise or promote goods or services; those of Commonwealth officials created in the exercise of their duties; compilations, anthologies or compendia of fragments of other authors’ works; inventions of novel mechanisms or processes of a purely utilitarian or functional nature; the names of products, groups or companies; and mere titles.

• Being the author or the legitimate rights-holder: works must be presented in person by one of the two.Verified against the official source
• That the work be of the type the act contemplates as suitable for registration and meet a minimum but sufficient level of originality.Verified against the official source
• Passing the Registrar’s qualification, which assesses the work’s form and does not judge its content.Verified against the official source
• Using the mark — an R inside a triangle — on registered and published works: in Puerto Rico’s registry it is mandatory in order to vindicate moral rights in Commonwealth courts.Verified against the official source

• The Registration Application, which the Department of State publishes for download along with the Instructions to the Presenter of Works.
• Two bound copies or reproductions of the work, deposited as part of the final formalities prior to registration.
• The $30.00 Internal Revenue voucher under code 5113, purchased at a Treasury Department Colecturía.
• The sworn declaration the process requires, whose notary fees the page mentions as an indirect cost.

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   Step 1: Check that your work is registrable

   The page publishes the list of what does not qualify, and it is worth reading before spending. Not registrable are mere ideas, concepts, proposals or systems not fixed in a medium of expression; works created to advertise or promote goods or services; those of Commonwealth officials created in the exercise of their duties; compilations, anthologies or compendia of fragments of other authors’ works; inventions of purely utilitarian or functional mechanisms or processes; the names of products, groups or companies; and mere titles. If yours is a mechanical invention, the page itself clarifies that this is protected only by a patent, not by copyright. And if what you want to protect is your business name or brand, that is the Trademarks and Trade Names Registry, a separate process with its own guide here.

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   Step 2: Buy the $30 voucher under code 5113

   The registration fee is $30.00 in the form of an Internal Revenue voucher, using code 5113, which must be purchased at a Treasury Department Colecturía. The code matters: it is what directs the payment to the right process. The page also warns of two indirect costs it does not price — the notary fees for the sworn declaration and the binding of the copies — so budget more than thirty dollars.

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   Step 3: Present the work in person, and from that moment you are protected

   Works must be presented in person by their author or legitimate rights-holder, and the page underlines the effect of that act: through presentation, the work immediately obtains the act’s full protection while the presentation period lasts and, afterwards, once registered. That is, protection does not wait for the end of the process: it starts when you present.

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   Step 4: The qualification looks at form, not content

   Presentation includes qualification or assessment by the Registrar to verify the work meets the act’s requirements. The page expressly clarifies that the Registrar does not judge the content of a presented work, only its form: what is determined is whether the work is of the type Act 55 contemplates as suitable for registration. Nobody will judge whether your novel is good; they will look at whether it is the kind of work the act admits.

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   Step 5: Deposit two bound copies

   Once qualification is successfully concluded, the presenter complies with the final formalities prior to registration and the deposit of two bound copies or reproductions. At that point registration proceeds and the work obtains the protection the act contemplates. And a guarantee worth knowing: only a final and firm judgment of a Court of Justice may annul an entry duly incorporated into the Registry’s books.

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   Step 6: Put the R in the triangle, or you lose the point

   This is the most ignored requirement and the costliest to ignore. The page says it without nuance: in Puerto Rico’s registry, use of the mark — an R inside a triangle — on registered and published works is mandatory in order to vindicate moral rights in Commonwealth courts. Registering and not marking leaves you with a certificate that may not serve you when you need it.

The Intellectual Property Registry is at Puerto Rico’s Department of State, which publishes on its page the Registration Application and the Instructions to the Presenter of Works for download. The $30.00 Internal Revenue voucher under code 5113 is bought at a Treasury Department Colecturía. The work is presented in person.

• Believing this registry replaces the federal one: its protection is limited to Puerto Rico’s territory.
• Thinking it protects economic rights: it protects moral rights.
• Registering and not using the R inside the triangle on the published work, which is mandatory to vindicate in Commonwealth courts.
• Trying to register an idea, a title, or the name of a group or product: the page expressly excludes them.
• Trying to register a mechanical invention, which is protected only by a patent.
• Budgeting only the $30: the sworn declaration before a notary and the binding of the two copies are separate.
• Buying the voucher under a code other than 5113.
• Mailing the work: it must be presented in person by the author or legitimate rights-holder.
• Believing an edict must still be published: that requirement was eliminated on 19 May 2000.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico

  Departamento de Estado

  www.estado.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Department of State

  estado

  www.estado.pr.gov