Copyright Clearance Services

Do you have a legal obligation to get permission if you want to use content created by others? Perhaps. The copyright clearance process starts by identifying your third-party content that may be protected under copyright law. Given the complexities of US copyright law, that often is no easy task.

Copyright Clearance Process

The first step in the copyright clearance process is a one-hour consultation with our copyright specialists. We will identify and discuss potential copyright issues in using third-party content. The second step typically is to conduct a review of your work for copyright issues. The findings from the review will be used to identify the scope of consultation and/or copyright clearance services that may be needed. We will submit a formal proposal if the proposed scope of work is more than two hours of additional consulting.

The scope of copyright clearance services offered include:

• Initial one-hour consultation;
• Examination of content/manuscript for instances of potential copyright protection and needs for copyright clearance;
• Determination that original source information has been provided to make the permission requests;
• Identification of primary sources if only secondary source information is provided;
• Establish copyright status of preexisting content;
• Identification of rights holders and contacts for permissions requests;
• Submission of request letters to rights holders, articulating the needs for publication and the potential inclusion of said rights holders’ work(s) within it;
• Following up on initial request letters to solicit the rights holders’ acceptance or denial for use;
• Development and maintenance of an electronic tracking log that provides the status of the acquisition of rights;
• Work in concert with the client to negotiate favorable license terms and conditions, as needed;
• Review license terms and conditions and provide guidance on compliance on said terms and conditions, as needed; and
• Assist with acknowledgments, copyright page, credits, and attribution, as needed.

Schedule Initial Consultation

When you are ready to schedule your initial consultation, specify quantity 1 for a “30-minute consultation” or quantity 2 for an hour consultation. Then click the yellow “Checkout with PayPal” button to initiate payment. Please note that this action will take you to the PayPal website. After we receive notice that you have completed the PayPal transaction, we will contact you to schedule your consultation.