diff --git a/make_templates/binary b/make_templates/binary
index f8fec6e1ffa467f30da5dbb50e51dcd99914d0e2..e8085fe092d3c9f0e5d222bed78805993b62cd2e 100644
--- a/make_templates/binary
+++ b/make_templates/binary
@@ -18,9 +18,10 @@ INSTALL_SOURCE ?= source
 #LOCAL_TEMP
 #LOCAL_DIST
 
-ifneq ($(shell cat COPYRIGHT 2> /dev/null),)
-COPYRIGHT ?= COPYRIGHT
-COPYRIGHT_DEP = COPYRIGHT
+COPYRIGHT_FILE ?= ./COPYRIGHT
+ifneq ($(shell cat $(COPYRIGHT_FILE) 2> /dev/null),)
+COPYRIGHT ?= $(COPYRIGHT_FILE)
+COPYRIGHT_DEP = $(COPYRIGHT_FILE)
 else
 COPYRIGHT ?= /dev/null
 endif
diff --git a/make_templates/header_only_lib b/make_templates/header_only_lib
index 472477d7d93ad39b2ffd5166b479da950a297b32..74d46a9fc6289be7989f30e98d1cc50ae4aba73c 100644
--- a/make_templates/header_only_lib
+++ b/make_templates/header_only_lib
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 INSTALL_INCLUDE ?= include
 INSTALL_SOURCE ?= source
 
-ifneq ($(shell cat COPYRIGHT 2> /dev/null),)
-COPYRIGHT ?= COPYRIGHT
-COPYRIGHT_DEP = COPYRIGHT
+COPYRIGHT_FILE ?= ./COPYRIGHT
+ifneq ($(shell cat $(COPYRIGHT_FILE) 2> /dev/null),)
+COPYRIGHT ?= $(COPYRIGHT_FILE)
+COPYRIGHT_DEP = $(COPYRIGHT_FILE)
 else
 COPYRIGHT ?= /dev/null
 endif
diff --git a/make_templates/static_lib b/make_templates/static_lib
index 3fc4623186205d67bd3242344406394bda9144a4..a24b145b9ab52e4253797bd15e85ee5b34471d08 100644
--- a/make_templates/static_lib
+++ b/make_templates/static_lib
@@ -17,9 +17,10 @@ INSTALL_LIB	?= lib
 #LOCAL_TEMP
 #LOCAL_DIST
 
-ifneq ($(shell cat COPYRIGHT 2> /dev/null),)
-COPYRIGHT ?= COPYRIGHT
-COPYRIGHT_DEP = COPYRIGHT
+COPYRIGHT_FILE ?= ./COPYRIGHT
+ifneq ($(shell cat $(COPYRIGHT_FILE) 2> /dev/null),)
+COPYRIGHT ?= $(COPYRIGHT_FILE)
+COPYRIGHT_DEP = $(COPYRIGHT_FILE)
 else
 COPYRIGHT ?= /dev/null
 endif