Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Customers have asked if they can copyright the name of their business. I'm not sure how to answer them.

Copyright law only applies to the expression of an idea in a tangible form. The expression of the idea could be recorded on paper, computer disk, clay tablet, or any other medium. The idea itself is not copyrightable. An example of this would be if you were to draw what you think a hybrid of a dog and bird would look like. The idea itself is not copyrightable, but the drawing of it is.

Copyright law does not apply to business names. However, if you are interested in protecting the name of your business then consider having it registered as a trademark.

A trademark is any company name, logo, brand, or symbol used to distinguish a service or product from its competition. Other identifying features of a business can be protected by what is called "trade dress," which is any arrangement of colors, shapes, etc. that distinguish a business from its competition. An example of "trade dress" is the choice of colors and their arrangement used by Kodak Film.

For more information on trademarks see:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is where you can research trademarks in a database, get up-to-date information on current trademark policy and law, and obtain applications for registering a trademark.

For more information on copyrights see:

Copyright Office -- apply for copyright protection, find current information on copyright laws and other helpful information pertaining to copyright.

Copyright and Fair Use -- research copyright law and fair use.

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