Copyright Law in Scranton, PA

According to WNEP, the City of Scranton offers incentives that are a tremendous boon to its businesses. Even retail enterprises that started during the pandemic thrive thanks to local help.

Most assistance you receive as an entrepreneur focuses on tax incentives or grants. But, who can help you protect the trade practices and symbols representing your brand?

The answer to this critical question is often a local copyright or trademark attorney. Track down your needs today through the material in this article.

What Is Copyright Registration?

Copyright registration offers the author of a piece of work in Scranton, Pennsylvania some protection from those who try to steal their idea.

A novel creation receives copyright protection when it becomes fixed into a tangible form. Copyright law dictates how to establish this ownership. Additionally, it explains how to register intellectual property or defend 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 in Scranton, PA with the help of a copyright lawyer, as this can offer you several unique advantages:

• Protects your work against the importation of copies that infringe the registration. Your registration will be recorded with the United States Customs and Border Protection.
• If your work is already registered in the United States, you can proceed with an infringement lawsuit; otherwise, you will have to register it first.
• The IP owner can seek damages and attorney fees if a copyright registration happens within three months of publication (or prior to an infringement claim).
• If a copyrighted work becomes registered outside of the three-month time frame, you may seek actual damages that you lost.
• Copyright registration will identify each public record of its existence. This action puts the copyright protection into public notice for the piece of work that you’ve created and/or own.

What Is a Trademark?

A trademark is a word, symbol, design, or phrase that distinguishes you from another company. Service marks are a type of trademark that a company will use when providing services to the public. Technically, 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 established Scranton, PA business people and brand owners often trademark:

• Logos
• Symbols
• Product packages
• Name of the business
• Name of the product or service
• Designs

Companies from Scranton register trademarks or service marks with the Pennsylvania Department of State. To receive legal protection from the state for the next five years, business owners must provide details like:

• Name of the applicant and their jurisdiction

• The date of the first usage of the mark

• Designations for the class of the goods and services offered

• A description and facsimile of the trademark

How Long Does It Take to Register a Trademark and Copyright?

Getting through each stage of the registration process can be a twelve to eighteen-month undertaking. In actuality, there are many reasons why a business from Scranton can experience lengthy slowdowns. Frequent mistakes that you may avoid with the help of a trademark attorney include:

• Using a name or phrase considered to be too generic

• Assigning the wrong party as the owner of the mark

• Relying on descriptors that lack an acquired distinctiveness

• Including specimens that do not properly demonstrate the use of the trademark

You will want to use the federal government’s registration portal to apply for a copyright. Processing data suggests that an online application goes through the process significantly faster. Most of these requests for registered work take 3.6 months. At a minimum, paper submissions average over eight months.

What’s the Difference Between a Trademark and a Copyright?

The value of your Scranton, PA business depends on the assets it owns. It’s important to note that the most valuable assets are not always physical or financial. Your intellectual property counts as assets too. Due to this, if people use those assets without your permission, you can file a lawsuit for infringement.

While trademarks and copyrights protect intellectual property, they cover two different aspects. Copyright registration protects artistic and literary works, such as videos and books. A trademark registration protects brand components. This can be a jingle, a logo, or a mascot of your organization.

Take, 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 all the magazines that you have published.

Work With an Experienced Scranton, Pennsylvania Copyright Lawyer

Do you have an idea that needs protection 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 eventuality can create complications when the time comes to defend IP rights claims.

An experienced Scranton, PA copyright lawyer can help you uncover if anyone else has registered a similar idea. If your concept closely resembles another, it might get rejected. Consequently, it is better to find this early than to go through the process only to get denied later. In addition, an intellectual property lawyer will help you to draft critical documents. Or, they can determine the value of the intellectual property that you own.

An intellectual property lawyer also assesses the quality of the assets. They will also look at the number of assets licensed under your name or your business in Scranton, PA. This evaluation can help to maximize the entire value of all intangible assets that your company has.

Are you ready to tap into our network of Scranton copyright attorneys  that can guide you through every step? We can even help you connect with an attorney across Pennsylvania state lines. 

Submit a request online or call us today at (866) 345-6784 to get in touch with an experienced lawyer in your area!