Copyright Law and Intellectual Property
Need help protecting your copyright or defending yourself against allegations of infringing on someone else’s intellectual property rights? Tap into our network of legal experts. Find the right trademark and copyright law attorney to build a strong case and increase your chances of victory.
What Is Copyright Registration?
Copyright registration offers the original author of a piece of work some protection from other people stealing their idea. A piece of work receives copyright protection when it is fixed into a tangible form. Copyright law dictates how to establish ownership. Additionally, it explains how a person can register their intellectual property. Also, it encompasses defending against infringement.
Copyright registration is a type of public record for ownership. A piece of work doesn’t require copyright registration for protection under the US copyright law. However, you should register your product under copyright to offer you several unique advantages:
- Protect your work against the importation of copies that infringe the registration. Your recorded registration will be noted with the United States Customs and Border Protection.
- If your work is already copyright registered in the United States, you can proceed directly with an infringement lawsuit in court; otherwise, you have to register it first.
- If a copyright registration happens within three months of the work being published or prior to an infringement claim, the owner of the copyright can seek statutory damages attorney fees in court.
- If a copyrighted work has been registered outside of the three-month time frame, you will be able to seek actual damages that you lost as the owner of the piece of copyrighted work.
- Copyright registration will identify each public record of the copyright, which puts into public notice the copyright protection for the piece of work that you’ve created and/or own.
Are you interested in registering a piece of work to be copyrighted? Working with intellectual property rights attorneys can help to simplify the process. In addition to this, they’ll work with you to fill out paperwork and follow the correct steps to ensure that your work is properly registered.
What Is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, symbol, design, or phrase that distinguishes your products or brand from another company. Service marks are a type of trademark that a company will use when they provide services to the public. Trademarks are a form of intellectual property. It also forms part of the company’s brand, even if they no longer use it.
Here are some of the components that business people and brand owners often trademark:
- Logos
- Symbols
- Product packages
- Name of the business
- Name of the product or service
- Designs
The trademark law process can prove to be incredibly complicated. This frustrates some people so much that they decide to forfeit the process. Work with an experienced intellectual property rights lawyer. They can help you navigate your way through the process and ensure everything is done correctly.
What’s the Difference Between a Trademark and a Copyright?
The value of your business is based on the assets it owns. It’s important to note that the most valuable assets are not always physical or even financial assets. Your intellectual property counts as assets too. Because of this, if people use those assets without your permission, you can file a lawsuit against them for infringement.
It’s important to note that while both trademarks and copyrights protect intellectual property, they protect two different aspects of IPs. Copyright registration protects artistic works and literary works, such as videos and books. However, a trademark registration protects the brand components of your company. For example this can be a jingle, a logo, or a mascot of your organization.
For example, if you own a magazine publishing company, you would trademark the logo and the name of your company. However, you would also place copyright protection on the magazines that you have published.
Are you looking to hire an experienced intellectual property lawyer? They can help you better understand whether you should register trademarks, copyrights or both? We have connections with lawyers all across the country. Call now so we can connect you with the right lawyer that can provide a free initial consultation.
How Does Getting Matched With a Legal Professional Work?
All you have to do is answer a few questions to connect with a lawyer, . We will use the information provide to connect you to an intellectual property attorney. We will connect you to a lawyer as soon as possible.
Work With an Experienced Copyright Law Lawyer
Do you have an idea that should be protected under intellectual property law? If so, complete the registration process as soon as possible. There is always the risk that someone else might beat you to it. This can create complications when it’s time to defend intellectual property rights claims.
Intellectual property lawyers can help you uncover if anyone else is working on a similar idea or has registered something similar. Note that if your idea too closely resembles someone else’s, it might get rejected. It is better to know this upfront than to go through the process only to get denied later on.
An intellectual property lawyer also assesses the quality of the assets. They will also look at the number of assets that are licensed under your name or that of your business. This can help to maximize the entire value of all intangible assets that your company has. In addition, an intellectual property lawyer will help you to draft important documents. Further, they can determine the value of the intellectual property that you own.
Are you ready to tap into our network of committed intellectual property lawyers, so they can guide you along every step of the way?
Submit a request online or call us today at (866) 345-6784 to get in touch with an experienced lawyer in your area!