{"id":365,"date":"2014-10-24T16:13:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T16:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/?p=365"},"modified":"2014-10-24T16:17:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T16:17:39","slug":"whats-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/?p=365","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the difference between \u00a9, \u00ae, and \u2122?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is an example of writing I\u2019ve\u00a0done for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brand-directions.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brand-Directions<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve all seen the symbols representing Copyright\u00a9, Registered Trademark\u00ae and boring, old regular Trademark\u2122. But how many of us really know how to use them?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Copyright\u00a9 is what protects tangible works like writings, songs, and artwork. It gives the creator the right to reproduce those works as they see fit. It prevents others from doing so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Trademark\u2122 protects things like slogans and logos used to <em>identify the source <\/em>of goods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s an example that may help. Sally writes a series of books called Sally\u2019s Simple Guides. She writes guides on cooking, spelunking, brain surgery and several other topics. The <em>content<\/em> of her books\u2014the words and images\u2014can be protected by copyright. But, the phrase, Sally\u2019s Simple Guide, and any logos associated with her brand fall under trademark.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Copyright<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anything you produce is automatically under copyright as soon as it is created. Sally\u2019s book covers can bear the phrase \u00a9 2014 Sally Smith. While copyright is automatic, it\u2019s a good idea to register claims with the US Copyright Office. This enters the copyright into the public record and allows it to be used as evidence in a court of law. <sup>1<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Copyrights do not protect ideas, products, methods, systems or information. Those kinds of protections generally fall under patent law.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trademark and Registered Trademark<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anyone can trademark something that distinguishes a brand. Sally can add \u2122 to her logo, tag line and anything she wants, without filing any paperwork. It is simply a claim. The next step is getting that claim registered with the U.S. Trademark Office. This will allow her to use the registered trademark \u00ae symbol. More importantly, this is what allows her to bring legal action against someone who infringes on her trademark.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Protections<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are also other less used symbols and types of protection. Sound recordings have a special kind of copyright called phonorecord.<\/p>\n<p>Most people do not realize that trademarks are only for products, while service marks\u00a0are for services. This doesn\u2019t really matter because like trademarks, unregistered service marks provide little legal protection. To make it even more confusing, once a service mark is registered, it is represented with the \u00ae symbol.<\/p>\n<p>There is also a legal term called trade dress. Trade dress is what protects the visual appearance of things that identify a brand. It can apply to the aesthetics of products, packaging, or even buildings. For example, the large, golden arches McDonalds incorporates into some of their buildings can be considered trade dress because it helps to identify its brand.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overlap<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are areas where protections overlap. For example, Dr. Peter Venkman is a character in the movie <em>Ghost Busters<\/em>. Characters are part of the movie content\u00a0and could fall under copyright. However, the image of Dr. Peter Venkman is also a way by which the Ghost Busters brand is identified. So, it could also fall under trademark.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How long do protections last?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another distinction between trademark and copyright is how long they last. Copyrighted material created after 1977 is protected for 70 years after the death of the creator. After the time is up, the work enters the public domain. <sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><em>An interesting aside\u2014longer periods of time now apply to corporations, largely due to lobbying from Walt Disney. The earliest Mickey Mouse movies would have fallen into public domain if U.S. copyright laws hadn\u2019t changed in 1998. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, became known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act by critics of the law.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Trademarks last as long as they are used and defended. That brings up another important aspect of rights protection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How are rights actually protected?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>You<\/em> are the one who must defend your copyrighted and trademarked material. Nothing magic happens when you add symbols to your products and packaging. The symbols are just ways of putting the public on notice that you intend to fight for your rights.<\/p>\n<p>Registering your claims with the government isn\u2019t magic either. Registering only provides you with more tools to defend yourself. If someone infringes on your copyrighted or trademarked material, you will have to take them to court and fight it out!<\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019m not a lawyer. Heck, I\u2019m barely a marketing professional. So here are some sources for the legal information in this article.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> <a href=\"http:\/\/copyright.gov\/help\/faq\/faq-general.html#automatic\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/copyright.gov\/help\/faq\/faq-general.html#automatic<\/a><\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uspto.gov\/faq\/trademarks.jsp#_Toc275426681\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.uspto.gov\/faq\/trademarks.jsp#_Toc275426681<\/a><\/p>\n<p><sup>3<\/sup> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stopfakes.gov\/faqs\/how-long-does-patent-trademark-or-copyright-protection-last\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.stopfakes.gov\/faqs\/how-long-does-patent-trademark-or-copyright-protection-last<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is an example of writing I\u2019ve\u00a0done for Brand-Directions. We\u2019ve all seen the symbols representing Copyright\u00a9, Registered Trademark\u00ae and boring, old regular Trademark\u2122. But how many of us really know how to use them? Copyright\u00a9 is what protects tangible works like writings, songs, and artwork. It gives the creator the right to reproduce those works [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swansonillustration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Intellectual-Property.jpg?fit=478%2C252&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p58TrR-5T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":368,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swansonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}