How to copyright a text or its translation

I recently got a copy of my grandfather's memoirs from an aunt. My grandfather died in the early 1960s, and my father is his oldest child. No other relative has ever taken an interest in what he wrote. I now want to translate it from German into English. I'd like to maybe even publish it. Because I've invested so much money and time buying the supporting documents and researching the facts, I'd like to copyright either (a) his original German text or (b) my translation or both. What are my chances of being able to do so, and how would I go about doing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

At least in US law, copyright is granted automatically to the author, you don't have to apply. Other than that, I don't have anything helpful.

If you can´t speak German and check the info on www.dpma.de, then check out this website: Copyright - World Intellectual Property Organization.

Thanks, I guess I'll give the patent office a call tomorrow. I guess it's clear that the translation belongs to me, but I wasn't sure who has the rights to my grandafther's text, because he's been dead for quite some time.

A big thanks to everyone for their help!

Make sure you call the German Patent and Trademark Office, not the European Patent Office though. I believe that 1 lady speaks some English at the DPMA (the German office).

If your grandfather is dead, you should find out, who inherited the original text. It should have been treated like any other object, that once belonged to your grandfather.

The memoirs seem to have been published, so she should probably check with the publisher about the rights.

No, the memoirs were never published. They were simply typed on thin paper.

I didn't get a chance to call the DPMA today, so I'll try tomorrow. I speak German, so hopefully I'll get some useful information from them.

Thanks everyone for your help! Stay tuned...

If you really want be on the safe side...

Photocopy the Documents and place them inside a sealed envelope. Seal this in another envelope. Take photos whilst doing this making sure that you have todays paper visible. Then either send them to yourself by post or get a reliable person(s) to sign and seal the envelope and witness that you were in posession of them on date xxxxxx.

If anyone steals the work you cn prove that you were in posession of the originals at the date shown.

Saves a hell of a lot of hassle with Copyright lawyers and Court cases.

As mentioned above, copyright vests as soon as it is reduced to a material form (i.e. written down). You don't need to "register" a copyright. The protection applies for the lifetime of the author plus (depending on the jurisdiction) 50 or 70 years.

Unless your grandfather specifically assigned the rights and benefits in the work to someone in his will, after his death the rights passed to his heirs according the the rules of succession in whatever your jursidiction is. In all likelihood, you do NOT hold the rights individually, but you will have the rights in your own work based on his memoirs or an eventual translation. Given that this is all intra-family, I dare say no royalty issues will arise for having used your grandfather's work as the basis.

But I don't quite understand - who do you think is going to breach the copyright anyway? If this document is only within the family, only a very limited group of people has access to the material, so I don't see where the risk of a copyright infringement lies. Or are you concerned that when you send it to a publisher you'll get a rejection letter, then find a similar publication coming out a year later?

The bill is in the mail.

Thanks so much LIMA and Fabmuc!

The story behind the memoirs is that my dream is to someday find someone to film the story of my grandfather's show. A book about it, written by a musician working for him, won a prize in 1946. Also, a friend, whose father was in the show, is writing a book about her father. So there's enough documentation to create a script. I've spent countless hours and hundreds of Euros researching the show and buying old show programs, etc.

Of all the grandchildren and children (scattered around the world), I'm the only one who has shown any interest in this or put any work into it. My objective is to tell this fascinating story, not to get rich. However, there are several grandchildren who don't know the meaning of hard work, can smell potential financial rewards a mile away. Should there be any indication that a movie might be made, you can bet that they'll be there within hours, demanding money and/or control of the project. The last thing I want, is for any interested person to be scared away from the project by several greedy, meddling relatives. I just want to be able to tell these relatives that this is my project, I want to see it come to fruition, and we'll talk money later. Although this may seem cold-hearted, I know that my father feels the same way.

So this is the reason that I want to copyright the text - to control what happens to the information it contains.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Ok, I managed to get in touch with a kind woman at the German Patent Office, who explained that this concerns copyright law, which they don't handle. She recommended that I find an attorney specializing in German copyright law.

So, next question: can one of you recommend someone? Are you one, or can you recommend a good one based on experience? What would the first hour of consultation cost?

Thanks!

If he died in the early 60s the copyright on anything he has written will expire in the early 2010s. I'm not sure how that ties in with film rights, translation rights etc., though.
The copyright might be part of his estate, if he willed the text to someone they might be the beneficiary of the copyright.

Markengesetz - § 5 Geschäftliche Bezeichnungen

(1) Als geschäftliche Bezeichnungen werden Unternehmenskennzeichen und Werktitel geschützt.

(2) Unternehmenskennzeichen sind Zeichen, die im geschäftlichen Verkehr als Name, als Firma oder als besondere Bezeichnung eines Geschäftsbetriebs oder eines Unternehmens benutzt werden. Der besonderen Bezeichnung eines Geschäftsbetriebs stehen solche Geschäftsabzeichen und sonstige zur Unterscheidung des Geschäftsbetriebs von anderen Geschäftsbetrieben bestimmte Zeichen gleich, die innerhalb beteiligter Verkehrskreise als Kennzeichen des Geschäftsbetriebs gelten.

(3) Werktitel sind die Namen oder besonderen Bezeichnungen von Druckschriften, Filmwerken, Tonwerken, Bühnenwerken oder sonstigen vergleichbaren Werken.

Hi everyone,

A big thanks to everyone for their helpful advice. I now realize that this is a bit more complicated than I originally though, so I'd better consult a copyright attorney here in Munich. Can anyone recommend someone?

Thanks!