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- #Do i need to copyright my logo movie#
- #Do i need to copyright my logo registration#
- #Do i need to copyright my logo software#
#Do i need to copyright my logo software#
extension of patents to also cover designs and software methods has by no means seen international adoption. In contrast, trademark law has not been extended all that much, and the U.S. They were sorted into copyright's reign and subsequently copyright legislation was grown to become more and more encompassing.
#Do i need to copyright my logo movie#
When copyright was created, computer programs and music and movie (or actually any mechanical) recordings did not exist. It's also worth noting that particularly copyright has grown to cover a whole lot more than it was originally designed for. In other words, copyrights and trademarks protect different things and most particularly imply permissions for different kinds of usage. It would be sort of a bummer if a shop did not include your products in its ad leaflets because you'd have copyright claims on your logo and it would be too much work for them to get explicit permission from all product manufacturers to use their logos. Only because trademark can be owned by a company not just a person?Īt least in common law countries, both trademarks and copyright can be owned by natural persons or companies.Ĭopyright may prevent your logo from being copied without license, including pointing to your product and advertising it.
#Do i need to copyright my logo registration#
Copyright is in fact inherent, no registration is required (though necessary in the US to get statutory damages). No, trademarks and copyrights are separate processes.
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Therefore, if my logo (not logotype) can be registered as a trademark, then I have the copyright of my logo. Trademarks are industry specific, for example, UPS has trademarked the color brown. This is true for copyright (though a very low bar), but simple things can in fact be trademarked. If something is too simple to create, it cannot be registered as a trademark, it's the same as how copyright works. However, i'm going to spend the rest of this answer addressing some misunderstandings. Additionally, copyright has limited (but long) duration, while trademarks can theoretically be protected indefinitely. Trademarks protect a mark from being used by others in a way that might confuse consumers. Speaking very broadly, copyright protects against unauthorized copying and distribution with some fair use exceptions. The general answer is that copyright and trademarks provide different kinds of protection.
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So, what's the point to make a logo as a trademark?
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Additionally a lack of a registered trademark would disallow you from seeking statutory damages under 15 U.S.C. Now you would have common law trademark protection by virtue of using your mark in commerce, but it would only be for the states in which you used it. However, Pepsi has better lawyers than that and with my trademark so similar to theirs and the name sounding so similar (and my new name being potentially disparaging to Pepsi) it would likely confuse consumers between what was Pepsi and what was Hep-C thus under trademark law it would be disallowed for commerce. I could even call it Pepsi and it would not be a copyright violation as you cannot copyright words. Under copyright law Pepsi could not come after me because the logo is my own creation. There it is my new logo for my cola company called Hep-C (I'm raising awareness). I could easily draw a circle half red and half blue with a white line straight across, vertically, or diagonally. Copyrights protect the mark as is, and derivatives of it, but does not protect the brand from look a likes or from new trademarks that would be confusing.
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