Who needs proof of prior authorship?
Concrete situations by creator profile, and what changes when you anchor your files before sharing them.
In most jurisdictions, copyright protects original work from the moment of creation, with no formality required. But that protection only manifests when challenged — when faced with a copy, a plagiarism case, a dispute. At that moment, one question dominates everything else: how do I prove that my work existed, in this exact form, at a date earlier than someone else’s?
The pages that follow present concrete situations by profile. What you can anchor, how to anchor it, what dated proof establishes — and what it doesn’t.
By profession
Find use cases, real examples, and legal references tailored to your profession.
Writers, journalists, screenwriters
Manuscript, screenplay, article, pitch — how to date the existence of a text before it circulates.
→Architects / Interior designers
Plans, sketches, 3D renders, material selections — how to date every stage of a design project.
→Fashion designers / Textile creators
Sketches, patterns, collections — proof of prior authorship recognized by French courts (AZ Factory, 2025).
→Graphic designers / Illustrators
Logos, brand guidelines, illustrations — how to protect your visual creations and creative process.
→Developers / UX/UI Designers
Source code, Git repos, Figma mockups, design systems — proof of prior authorship for developers and UX/UI designers.
→Other use cases
Beyond professional profiles, some ETcH use cases transcend professions and apply to anyone holding documents to timestamp.
Your activity isn’t listed?
The principles apply to any original digital production. If your field doesn’t appear here yet, anchoring works the same way — what changes is the nature of the files and the right moment to anchor them.