Cartoons & Comic Strips

Cartoons and comic strips can be protected by copyright. This protection extends to any copyrightable pictorial or written expression contained in the work. Intangible attributes of characters are not copyrightable, but a drawing, picture, or depiction or a written description of a character may be registered for copyright.

A character may also be protected under aspects of state, common, or trademark laws. Likewise, titles and names may sometimes be protected under state law doctrines or state and federal trademark laws.

A single registration may be made for cartoons published as a unit (for example, a comic book), provided that the copyright claimant is the same for all elements in the unit.

Two or more unpublished cartoons or comic strips may be registered together on a single application if:

• The collection is given a single title.
• All of the individual elements were created by the same author, or at least one author has contributed to each element.
• The copyright claimant in each element and in the collection as a whole is the same.
• The collection is assembled and submitted in an orderly manner.

Works registered as a collection will be recorded in the records of the Copyright Office only under the collective title. Copyright registration of cartoons and comic strips extends only to the copyrightable material deposited at the time of registration. There is no blanket registration that will cover works to be produced in the future.

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