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Startup Rules
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Article 3: Protect Your Business
Home-based businesses must protect their identity and their intellectual property. This includes logos, product names, marketing collateral and advertisements.
Trademarks and service marks protect ownership. A trademark is obtained for a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of those things that identify and distinguish you. A service mark is the same, but identifies a service rather than a product.
To avoid being challenged or sued by another company that may have used your company name before you adopted it, check registered trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, www.uspto.gov. You can search online to determine whether someone already has claimed a trademark, and if not, then you can file to reserve it for your company.
There is a $325 fee to file your trademark. Filing ensures your exclusive ownership of “words, names, symbols, sounds or colors that distinguish goods and services from those manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods.” Trademarked names can be used only by their owners and can be renewed for as long as they are used in commerce.
A local check of fictitious business names won’t reveal whether another company somewhere in America is using the name you chose for your company. But the nationwide trademark check can.
Just as DBAs and trademarks protect your company, copyright filings protect your intellectual property, such as your marketing collateral or other printed and recorded material. Unlike a trademark, a copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject.
For example, everything you create in written form automatically is copyrighted upon creation. It’s yours. Others may legally use or reproduce it only with your permission.
The rub is that when two or more persons each make claim to the same material, how can we know which is the rightful owner? That’s where registering your copyrighted material comes in.
In effect, copyright registration establishes the date of ownership. Anyone later claiming to own the material must prove they registered the copyright before you. If they cannot, they need your permission to use the material, or risk infringing on your copyright. Courts recognize copyrighted material as a property right of the registered owner.
Copyright is obtained under U.S. law for “original works of authorship.” These can include literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other intellectual works. The protection extends not just to published material, but also to unpublished works. The owner of the copyright has exclusive rights to use and to permit others to use the material.
Registration fees for copyrighted material range from $30 to $140, and more for special certifications. There are different requirements for registering different materials. An overview of copyrights is available from the United States Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wci.
If you are uncertain whether you need a copyright or a trademark, consult an attorney who specializes in intellectual property.
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