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There is a lot of time and effort that goes into creating a logo that accurately represents your band. As such, it’s important to take the proper steps to protect your art so you have some recourse if infringement occurs.

For the most part, band logos can be considered an original and creative form of art - assuming the logo is more than just the name of the band without an artistic element. As such, they can be protected under Copyright Law as a Visual/Artistic work.

Just to ensure this is clear, the artwork for the logo can be protected under copyright law, but not the name of the band itself. This is because copyright law does not protect names, slogans, or catch-phrases. If you were looking to protect against other bands using your actual name vs. the artwork, this would fall under Trade-Mark Law.

In order to protect your band logo under copyright law, all you have to do is put your logo in a tangible form (on paper, on CD, on a hard drive, on the back of a candy wrapper, etc.). Once it’s in this fixed form, the creator owns the exclusive rights to produce or reproduce the art.

Although you automatically own the copyright to the logo artwork the moment it is put in a fixed form, it’s best to have taken further steps to prove to the courts that the work was originally yours should someone (perhaps another band) steal your logo or a big portion of it

In General, the best option for added protection is through a reputable copyright registry. For ultimate protection, one should register their logo as soon as it has been completed, before showing others.

There are a number of options for copyright registries. You could register through the Government, through associations, or through online registries. When doing your research, ensure you know all the costs involved, whether there are membership or renewal fees, and whether they provide you with a time-stamped registration certificate.

As a side note, do not rely on the ever-popular “Poor Man’s Copyright Method” (i.e. sending yourself your work through mail) because it is highly unlikely to hold in a court of law should someone infringe on your logo design.

Regardless of which method you choose to protect your band’s logo, remember to register it before you show it to third parties. Good Luck!

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

Once you complete an original musical work and put it in a fixed form (i.e. a CD), you automatically own the copyright. This is the beauty of Copyright Law! However, just because you own the copyright, doesn’t mean it’s easy to prove you were the first creator should someone steal your work.

As such, if you are planning on earning money from your music, or if it would bother you if someone stole your work, you should consider added protection in the form of copyright registration.

Fortunately, copyright registration for your music can be relatively painless, depending on your financial threshold. The cost of copyright registration can vary dramatically. It can range from as little as $4 per musical work to $60 per musical work. When evaluating copyright services for music, ensure you know all costs, fixed and re-occurring. As well, keep an eye out for membership fees or renewal fees that must be paid for your registration to remain valid.

Although it can be tempting, do not rely on the ‘Poor Man’s Copyright Method’ (i.e. registered mail, emailing yourself) because it is highly unlikely to be regarded as proof in a court of law. If you absolutely cannot afford to register your work, emailing the work to yourself is, at least, better than nothing. However, given the time and energy put into creating your music, it’s often well worth the added investment to ensure your work is protected through registration.

If you decide you want to proceed with added copyright protection through registration, here’s what you should do:

o Put your music into a fixed form (for example, CD, DVD, paper, etc.). This is absolutely critical for copyright law to recognize your work. If it’s not in a fixed form, it’s not covered by copyright law.

o Choose a registration service. Copyright law requires you to prove ownership of your work if you wish to proceed in a claim against an infringer. There are a number of copyright services available (Government, Associations, Online, etc.); however, many can be expensive and may not protect your music for the life of copyright (unless you renew your membership). Having said this, there are a number of fabulous services out there…just keep your eyes open and watch for hidden costs.

o Once you have chosen a service that suites your needs, register your music. Upon completion, you will receive a registration certificate that provides protection and proof against infringers, as it provides evidence of the day and time you submitted your work which helps prove ownership. It’s best to register your music as soon as it is finished, before showing it any outside parties. Registration generally involves filling out forms that gather evidence about the musical work.

o Remember to keep a copy of your registration certificate.

Once registered, you are ready to promote your work with the confidence it is protected. Good luck!

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge about music registration and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

The rights granted through copyright law are very important to the owner of the copyright. As such, it is imperative to understand who the owner of the work is to determine who actually has the rights.

Tip 1: Creator is the Owner
As a general rule, the creator of the copyright (the author) is the owner. When there are several authors involved in the creation of a work, all authors are considered co-authors. It is recommended you determine together, and agree in writing, what share of income from the exploitation of that copyright each of you will earn.

There are, however, a number of circumstances where the author is not the owner of copyright and is not entitled to the rights copyright provides. These situations are described below in Tips two through five.

Tip 2: Commissioned Works
If a work is commissioned, the copyright might belong to the person who is commissioning the work - and not the person creating the work. An example of this would be a bride and groom who commission a photographer to shoot their wedding. If the photographer held the rights to the photographs, then the wedding couple would not have the right to reproduce their photos. However, since the rights to the photos actually belong to the commissioning couple, they can make as many copies as they please to send to their friends and family.

Tip 3: Course of Employment
Another example where the copyright might not belong to the creator is with works created in the course of employment. For instance, if copy was written for an advertisement during the course of employment at an advertising firm, the person who wrote the copy would not own the copyright because it was written while performing their contract to the company. In other words, if the work was created under a “contract of service” as part of the terms of employment, the employee probably owns the copyright.

Tip 4: Transferring of Copyrights
In some situations, the owner of the copyright might actually choose to transfer the rights to another party through a contract. For example, a musician might transfer their rights to a song to a record label in return for a portion of the revenue earned for each copy sold.

Tip 5: Check the Contract
In many cases there will be a contract involving the creation. Always review the fine print to ensure you know who is retaining the rights to the copyright.

In all cases where copyright is concerned, it’s important to understand who the owner of the work is to determine who holds the rights to reproduce the work.

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

There is often confusion on whether one has a copyright in a work, or whether they should get a patent for protection.

In this article, you will finally come away with a clear understanding on the difference between these two types of intellectual property.

The Rights Afforded by Copyright Protection:

Copyright protects the expression of literary and artistic work. When a person creates an original work, and have put it in a fixed form, they automatically own the copyright to that work. What this means is the person owns the rights to: reproduce the work, perform the work, record the work, broadcast the work, translate the work, and adapt the work into a different form (i.e. a novel into a screenplay).

Copyright Protects Expressions, Not Ideas:

A common misunderstanding is that copyright protects ideas. Copyright protects the expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. What this means is one hundred people can write an article about copyright. However, we each own the copyright to our specific articles because each one is an original and fixed piece of work.

The Concepts of Originality and Fixation in Copyright:

“Originality” and “fixed” are two important terms in copyright. While the work does not have to be the first of its kind (i.e. this is not the first article ever written about copyright), the expression has to be original (I’m not plagiarizing this article - I have written it myself with original sentence structures and an original flow to the article). As for being ‘fixed’ there is a very good reason for this requirement. For a work to fall under copyright law, it must be in a fixed form - because it would be very difficult to prove what was created if there was no copy of it! A “fixed” form could be something written on paper, recorded onto a CD, recorded on video, or saved on a flash drive.

What Copyright Protects:

Copyright covers a wide variety of artistic works and they are generally characterized as follows:
o Literary Work (novels, poems, computer software source code)
o Artistic/Visual Arts (sculpture, drawing, illustration, graphic design, plans, maps, photographs, architectural work)
o Dramatic Work (films, videos, choreography), Musical (musical composition with or without words)
o Sound Recordings (recordings of music, drama, or lectures)
o Serial & Periodicals (periodicals, newspapers, magazines, bulletins, newsletters, annuals, journals, proceedings of societies)

Patents Protect Inventions:

Patents protect new inventions or useful improvements to existing inventions. Examples are inventions or discoveries of any new and useful process, apparatus, machine, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.

Patents Must Be Obtained:

Unlike copyright which is automatic, a patent must be granted by the government to be valid and can take up to three years with considerable financial investment. If you are going to file for a patent, it is very important you do not disclose your invention to anyone, because it could be grounds to refuse your patent application.

Because there is an application process for patents, a patent granted in one country is not valid in another. As such, you will need to apply separately in each country, or through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Qualifications For Patents:

For an item/process to qualify for a patent, it must generally be:
o new
o useful
o inventive (in other words, it must not be an obvious invention to someone in the field)

Durations of Patents:

Once you successfully hold a patent, you have a limited time (usually around 20 years) where you are the only one who can make this item or use the patented process before it is made public.

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright and patent knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult an intellectual property lawyer in your country.

Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

Could copyright get any more complicated? There are so many factors that play into the laws governing each work, and determining the duration of copyright is no exception.

As a general rule for countries who are signatories of the Bern Convention (over 100 countries are members of this convention), the minimum duration of copyright is 50 years after the death of the author. Some countries, however, have chosen to increase this to 70 years after the death of the author.

Although there is a general rule of thumb, copyright duration can depend on any number of factors including: when the work was created, the nature of the work, the number of authors and whether they remained anonymous or used pseudonyms, and the country where the work was created.

In addition, the duration of copyright is usually calculated based on the authors, and not the owners of the copyright. In some cases, the author may sell their work so that someone else owns it. If this is the case, duration is still generally based on the author’s life, and not the owner’s.

Let’s take a look at each a number of factors that can affect the duration of copyright.

When was the Work Created?
In some countries, the date of creation of the work may have a significant impact on the duration of copyright. For instance, in the United States, works created after January 1st 1978 have a different copyright duration than works created before this date. In the U.K, 1996 is a significant date.

What is the Nature of the Work?
A very important variable in determining the duration of copyright is the nature of the work being protected. Is it a literary creation or a musical creation? Is it an artistic work or perhaps a sound creation? Depending on what the work is will change the duration of the copyright protection.
For instance, for cinematographic works, the term may be 50 years after the making of the work. For photographic works, protection is generally 25 years from the making of the work.

How Many Authors Are There?
The general minimum duration of copyright for Berne Convention countries is 50 years after the death of the author. When there are multiple authors, the minimum duration will be 50 years after the passing of the last surviving author.

Are the Authors Anonymous or do they go by Pseudonyms?
The duration can become more complicated when the authors are anonymous or go by pseudonyms. Since we do not know when the author passes for anonymous works, the general rule of duration is 50 years from the date the work was made available to the public.
In the case where the author’s identity is hidden with a pseudonym, the work may be protected for a period of 50 from the first publication, or 75 years from the making of the work (whichever is shorter). If, however, the identity of the author is identified, the regular ‘life + 50′ or ‘life +70′ rule would apply. Each country may have their own duration rules when it comes to Anonymous and Pseudonymous authors. For instance, the U.S. goes by the 95/120 rule where the duration is 95 years after publication or 120 after creation, whichever is shorter.

In What Country was the Work Created?
As discussed above, the nation in which the work was created can dictate differences in copyright duration. As well, according to the Berne convention’s Principal of National Treatment, nations will give nationals of other Berne countries the same treatment as their own nationals. For example, a work created in Canada enjoys the ‘life + 50′ rule for duration. However, in the U.S, they will receive the ‘life + 70′ rule because that is the law dictated in the U.S.

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

To include the notice, or not to include the notice? A common point of confusion for copyright creators is whether they need to include the copyright notice with their work for copyright protection.

The good news for most creators is you do not need to include a copyright notice with your work to have copyright protection; and by ‘protection’ we mean the rights to produce, reproduce and perform your work.

In general, copyright protection is granted automatically upon the completion of your work in a fixed form. Having said this, there is some fine print one should be aware of, especially for works created in the United States.

Short History of the Copyright Notice:
Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which concluded in 1886, copyright protection is automatically granted for original works expressed in a fixed form (for example, a format that can be perceived, communicated and reproduced such as on paper, memory key, compact disc, etc.). There are over 100 countries who are signatories of the Berne Convention, all of which are listed on the World Intellectual Property Office’s website. In addition, countries that are a part of the World Trade Organization have to adhere to almost all of the conditions of the Berne Convention.

The beauty of the convention is it harmonizes and sets minimum standards of copyright laws between the member countries. This has greatly reduced the risk for copyright creators when publishing their works internationally, as they will receive similar protection abroad as they would in their own country.

When copyright protection is automatic, as it is for all Berne Convention countries, you are not required to use the copyright notice to protect your work.

Now, the tricky part is for U.S citizens. The United States only joined the Berne Convention on March 1st 1981, which means any works published before this date may still require the copyright notice to protect copyright, unlike works published after March 1st 1989.

Although the Copyright Notice is Not Required, here are 6 Reasons it Can Increase Protection of Copyright:

1. The copyright notice tells the public that the work is protected by copyright law. Without the notice, someone interested in using the work might mistakenly think it is available for use without permission.

2. It helps identify the copyright owner which is handy if anyone needs to contact them regarding the work.

3. It provides the year of publication which can be important in determining the duration of copyright.

4. A copyright notice makes it much harder for an infringer to claim that they did not know the work was copyrighted. If the notice is not present, an infringer could use this reasoning in court and potentially be acquitted of the charges.

5. The notice might act as a deterrent for someone to infringe on the work. If a person knows the work is protected, they might be less likely to use it.

6. It’s easier for someone to make contact to obtain permission to use your work when a copyright notice is present.

As you can see, even though having the copyright notice is not required, it’s definitely a good idea to help protect copyright.

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

ustine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

The more I speak with people, the more I realize copyright is a topic that is still commonly misunderstood.

This article is intended to clarify some of the major questions about copyright so people can feel comfortable promoting their work to outside parties.

Tip 1: What is Copyright?

It only seems logical to begin this article by describing what copyright really is. In essence, copyright protects original works from being used without permission from the author or owner of the work. The reason for the protection is to encourage creators to continue with their artistic innovations, which positively impacts the economy.

Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or owner of the work for a specific period of time. The rights granted by copyright include:
* producing or reproducing the work or any substantial part thereof
* permitting the reproduction of the work or any substantial part thereof
* performing the work or any substantial part thereof
* publishing the work or any substantial part thereof
* translating the work into other languages, or creating an adaption, such as a novel into a screenplay

The significance of these rights is that the owner of the copyright can control who uses their work. As a result, the creative integrity of the work can be maintained as the owner has control over its use.

Tip 2: How do I Attain Copyright Protection?

The beauty about copyright is that it is automatic the moment you put your original work into a fixed (tangible) form. When we refer to a tangible form it means the work has to be on something physical. In other words, if you simply recite your poem to someone, you do not own the copyright. However, if you write the poem on a napkin, or record yourself reciting the poem, you will own the copyright, and the rights that go along with it.

Although copyright is automatic the moment you put your work in a fixed form, it could still be very difficult to prove you are the original creator of the work. As such, it can be a good idea to create legal proof of your ownership through a copyright registry. Many countries run their own registries. There are also registries through various artistic guilds, or even online registries.

Tip 3: What Works are Protected by Copyright?

Different countries may classify their works slightly differently. As a general guide, copyright extends to original creative works. Below are some examples and the classifications of works that can be protected by copyright:

o Literary Works (lyrics, novels, computer software source code, plays, etc.)
o Artistic Works/Visual Works (architectural work, sculptures, drawings, paintings, maps, photographs, etc.)
o Musical Works (musical composition with or without words)
o Dramatic Works (films, videos, choreography)
o Sound Recordings (recordings of music, dramas, lectures, etc. It does not include soundtracks to audio visual works).
o Serials & Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, bulletins, newsletters, journals, periodicals, etc.)

Now that you know what is protected by copyright, let’s take a quick look at what is not protected by copyright.

Copyright protects the expression of a work. The idea of the work itself cannot be protected under copyright law. In other words, one thousand people can write about the concept of copyright, and each of them would hold the copyright to their specific expression about the topic. In addition to ideas, other works not protected by copyright include: concepts, names, titles, slogans, factual information, themes, catch-phrases, methods, governmental documents, etc.

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific work, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of “poor man’s copyright”. CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees. Visit CC today to receive 4 free registrations.

I own an independent graphic design company and have been providing design work for local bands and businesses for a few years now; there are only a few of us in this company and we’re not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination but we make enough to get by and the genuine love of our job gets us through it all. However, we’ve spent the last couple of months embroiled in some rather nasty commercial litigation after a larger company stole a piece of our work from the internet and used it in one of their campaigns.

We first noticed it on a social networking site on one of the banner adverts which fill that particular page; it looked familiar, but surely it couldn’t be the same. After downloading and re-sizing it, it became obvious that this was the same design, albeit they’d changed the text which wouldn’t be a lot of work for a vaguely competent graphic designer.

This company has a lot more money behind them than we do, and none of us know the first thing about commercial litigation, but we weren’t going to take this lying down - this company had clearly made a lot of money out of our work, and we weren’t happy about it. While suing them wasn’t the first thought that came to mind - as I say, commercial litigation isn’t our strong point - we felt that we should either see some of that money or at least get some credit for the design, hopefully generating some more business for our company.

We looked into the rest of the campaign they were using to see how much they’d used our work; if it was just the social networking site banners it wouldn’t have been as big a deal as it would have been if they’d used it in print media or in other venues. It turned out that the work was also being used in magazines, flyers and in viral videos, meaning a lot of people were seeing our work and someone else was taking credit for it.

We shut down the office for an afternoon and began to seriously discuss what we were going to do about this. Though we thought about contacting the company directly we didn’t think we’d get very far, so we visited a local solicitor who referred us to a group he deals with sometimes that specialises in commercial litigation.

The solicitor went through everything with us and, once we provided evidence of our work predating theirs, he seemed confident that we had a good chance of winning our case. Though the time spent in court hasn’t been the most pleasant thing we’ve ever done, we feel justified in defending our work and are hopeful that we’ll be able to help stop bigger companies stealing from smaller ones in the future.

Thomas Pretty is the owner of a small graphic design company who recently had their work stolen. Find out more about commercial litigation at http://www.stewartslaw.com/

Imagine you are an inspiring film producer with a terrific idea for a major television mini-series or feature film. In order to pitch your product to the studios or an established producer who can arrange financing, you need a script.

After shopping around you find a struggling writer who agrees to write your script for a fee. You pay this writer the agreed upon fee. While you understood that you now own the script, there was never a writing signed by the parties defining the respective rights. The writer then registers the script with the Screen Writers Guild and the issue becomes who owns the copyrights.

The answer to this question depends on when the script was created. If the script was created before 1978 the Copyright Act of 1909 applies. The Copyright Act of 1909 provided that the proprietor of any work copyrighted….by an employer for whom such work is made for hire is entitled to a renewal and extension of the copyright. The 1909 Act did not define the term works made for hire or employer.

Up until around 1965 that federal courts applied the work for hire doctrine only to cases in which a traditional employer-employee relationship existed between the hiring party and the creator of the work. However, during this period the courts expanded the concept to include less traditional relationships, as long as the hiring party that the right to control or supervise the artist work.

In a case entitled Twentieth Century Fox v Entertainment Distributing, Doubleday convinced General Eisenhower in 1947 to write his memoirs about his efforts as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces during World War II. The agreement was prepared with income tax considerations to allow General Eisenhower to obtain long term capital gains by granting an option to purchase his script.

Doubleday granted various rights to Fox who later sued a company called Dastar for copyright infringement. The issue was whether General Eisenhower wrote his memoirs under a work for hire. The court stated that when on person engages another, whether as employee or independent contractor, to produce a work of an artistic nature, that in the absence of an express contractual reservation of the copyright in the artist, the presumption arises that the mutual intent of the parties is that the title to the copyright shall be in the person at whose instance and expense the work is done.

The Copyright Act of 1976 embodies a clear break with prior doctrine of work for hire. The Copyright Act of 1976 states the copyright vests initially with the author. The Act defines a work for hire as work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or if the work fits into one of nine categories and there is a writing signed by the parties that the work is a work for hire.

In order to determine if the there was a traditional employer-employee relationship common law principles apply under what was referred to as a master-servant relationship. The courts consider the extent of control the master exerts over the details of the work, whether the one employed is engaged in a distinct occupation or business, the skill required, whether tools are supplied by the master, the length of time the for which the person was employed, the method of payment including the withholding for taxes and the payment of payroll taxes.

If there the relationship does not fit into the traditional employment relationship, the work is specially commissioned by what is considered an independent contractor. In that situation, one must see if the commissioned work fits into any of the nine enumerated categories and there must be a writing indicating the parties intent the work is a work for hire.

Robert G. Klein, Esq. is a Los Angeles business litigation attorney whose emphasis is in trademark infringement litigation, unfair competition lawsuits, trade secret litigation, and business disputes. Visit our web site http://www.kleinligitation.com or call him at 213.996.8508