In a copyright notice, the © symbol goes before the name, not after it. U.S. law sets a specific order: the symbol first, then the year of first publication, then the name of the copyright owner. So “© 2026 Jane Doe” is correct. “Jane Doe © 2026” and “Jane Doe Copyright 2026” are not.
That order isn’t a style preference. It’s the format the Copyright Office describes for a valid notice, and getting it right is what lets the notice do its legal work.1U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 3 – Copyright Notice
The Three Elements, In Order
A complete notice has three parts, and they appear in this sequence:
- The symbol or word. You can use ©, the word “Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.” Combining them is fine too, as in “Copyright © 2026.”
- The year of first publication. This is the year the work was made available to the public, not the year you created it.
- The owner’s name. Use the full name, a recognizable abbreviation, or a well-known alternative name for the owner.
Put together, a proper notice reads “© 2026 Jane Doe” or “Copyright 2026 ABC Corp.”1U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 3 – Copyright Notice The year can be dropped for artwork reproduced on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, or similar goods, but for most works you should include it.2U.S. Copyright Office. 17 USC Chapter 4 – Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration
Sound Recordings Use a Different Symbol
If the work is a sound recording, the notice uses ℗ (a P in a circle) instead of ©. The order stays the same: symbol, year, owner’s name. The reason for a separate symbol is that a single release can carry several copyrights at once. The musical composition has one, the printed liner notes and artwork have another, and the recording itself has yet another. Using ℗ for the recording and © for the other elements keeps clear which claim belongs to whom.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 402 – Notice of Copyright: Phonorecords of Sound Recordings
What About “All Rights Reserved”?
You’ll see “All Rights Reserved” tacked onto many notices, usually after the owner’s name. It is not required by U.S. law and never has been. The phrase traces back to the Buenos Aires Convention of 1910, which asked for some form of rights reservation statement among member nations in the Western Hemisphere. Every country party to that treaty has since joined newer agreements that don’t require it. Including the phrase doesn’t hurt anything. Leaving it out doesn’t change your rights.
Where to Put the Notice
The statute requires only that the notice appear where it gives “reasonable notice” of the copyright claim. There’s no single mandatory spot.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 401 – Notice of Copyright: Visually Perceptible Copies Standard placements have settled out by medium:
- Books and printed materials: the copyright page (the back of the title page), the title page itself, or the first or last page of the main text.
- Websites: the footer of each page, where visitors expect to find it.
- Software and apps: a splash screen, an “About” dialog, or the documentation.
- Photographs and visual art: near the bottom edge of the image, on a label on the back, or in the image metadata.
The point is visibility. A notice buried where an ordinary viewer would never see it doesn’t do much for you. Put it somewhere a person encountering the work would reasonably notice.
What Happens If You Get the Format Wrong
Errors in a notice don’t automatically destroy your copyright, but they can cause specific problems.
Wrong Name
If the notice lists the wrong person or company, your copyright is still valid. But someone who relied on the incorrect name in good faith, for instance by getting a license from the person named, may have a complete defense against your infringement claim. That defense goes away if you had already registered the copyright or if a recorded document showed the correct ownership before the infringement began.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 406 – Notice of Copyright: Error in Name or Date on Certain Copies and Phonorecords
Wrong Year
A year that’s too early shrinks the effective term of your copyright, because certain periods are calculated from the year in the notice rather than the actual publication year. A year that’s more than a year too late is treated as if you published with no notice at all.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 406 – Notice of Copyright: Error in Name or Date on Certain Copies and Phonorecords
Missing Name or Year
A notice with no name, or no date, counts as no notice at all. For works published on or after March 1, 1989, omitting the notice doesn’t invalidate the copyright, but it does open the door to an “innocent infringement” defense.2U.S. Copyright Office. 17 USC Chapter 4 – Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration
Why Bother With a Notice at All
Copyright protection begins automatically the moment you fix an original work in tangible form, whether that’s writing it down, recording it, or saving a file.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 102 – Subject Matter of Copyright You don’t need a notice for protection to exist. What you get from including one is leverage against an infringer.
When a proper notice appears on published copies the infringer had access to, a court will give no weight to an innocent infringement defense.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 401 – Notice of Copyright: Visually Perceptible Copies That defense matters because it can drive statutory damages down to as little as $200 per work when a defendant proves they had no reason to know the work was copyrighted. A valid notice takes that argument off the table.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
A Notice Is Not a Registration
The “© 2026 Jane Doe” line and a copyright registration are two different things, and people mix them up constantly. The notice is what you put on the work itself. Registration is a formal filing with the U.S. Copyright Office. You can have either one without the other.
Registration is what lets you enforce your copyright in court. You cannot file a federal infringement lawsuit over a U.S. work until you have registered, or at least applied to register.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 411 – Registration and Civil Infringement Actions Timing matters too: if you register before an infringement begins, or within three months of first publishing the work, you can pursue statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Wait until after the infringement, and you’re limited to proving your actual losses.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement Statutory damages run from $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
So the short version: put the symbol first, then the year, then your name, and put the whole line somewhere people will actually see it. If the work matters, register it too.