I need to copyright a product/logo how do I do it?

Cheers
Sam

 

i heard something on the radio that a cheap way of Copy writing (think they were on about music) was to package you 'product' in a secure envelope then send it to your self SECURE DELIVERY REGISTERED POST, but then you never open it....if some one copies your 'what ever' you have it recoreded by the post office etc!!!
you could always send it to your solicitor or bank i would have thought!


Phil

 

I think that is a way of proving that you did it first, but not of copyrighting it.

I would be interested too as I have something that I want copyrighting

 

Copyright is automatic in something original. If it's a logo, what you want to do is register it as a trademark. If it's an idea for a product, you need to register a patent.
http://www.patent.gov.uk/

Edited to say that sending it to yourself registered post doesn't work as you could mail yourself an unsealed envelope, then put the item in at a later date. You could lodge the item with your bank manager in the old days, not sure you can do it with the bank's 'Customer Centre' now

[Edited by carl - 3/16/2002 10:41:52 AM]

 

See the Copyright Licensing Agency FAQs
NB Don't copy it - it seems to be copyright

 

Im a product designer. a quick and easy way, designers do it. is to write in the bottom left corner of the drawing or picture "NAME. design copyright (C) 2002" E.g.
"Raymond S.W Li Desigm copyright (C) 2002"

Or as above send your design to yourself but do not open it and dont tell anyone about your deign if no you will loss your copyright just like that.

 

Read what Carl said. Copyright automatically rests with the author, creator, artist or whatever. Technically, what I am writing now is automatically my copyright. I think what you are after is either a patent or trademark. MarkM is the Scoobynet man you need to contact.

Cheers,

Richard.

 

...or Adam M -- works in patenting.

 

Oops. Sorry Mark, I mean Adam, I mean you!

 

Copyright covers the written word basically, but i believe if you want it to be enforceable you need to add the copyright logo, your name and the date/year. Then you would need some form of statement saying that for people to copy the document, they would need to contact yourself and without permission, they cannot copy any part of the document.

Alternatively, you can still maintain copyright (i.e. the intellectual property) on a piece of writing but give people permission to copy it, so long as the copyright logo and your name is not removed from subsequent copies...

Theoretically, the issue of mailing a sealed copy of something to yourself to patent it would work. Haven't heard of anyone doing it then winning a patent infringement case though. Or maybe the only people that use that shoddy way of doing it don't have anything worth copying?

Trademarks... not a clue... sorry!

Jim

 

Jim, whoever creates a piece of work and commits it to permanent form (words, photograph, artwork, painting, graphics, whatever) is the author, and they own the copyright, as defined in the 1988 Act. The only significant exception to this is when the work is created by a salaried employee (ie not a freelance) in the course of their work, in which case copyright belongs to the employer.

That's the basic law, although it can get incredibly complicated in some cases, sometimes verging on the ridiculous. One issue that's a hot topic of debate with the Inland Revenue at the moment, is what exactly 'employment' means. Not that they could give a stuff about copyright, but they are very interested in who is resposnible for income tax on any earnings. And PAYE is so much easier for them.

Here are a couple of other daft ones, for your amusement. You're on holiday enjoying a nice meal with your partner. You ask the waiter to take a picture of you with your camera. The waiter owns the copyright (!) although you own the film. Another one - you give an interview to a reporter, who writes down what you say. The reporter owns the copyright to your spoken words (because he made them permanent).

Writing 'copyright' on any piece of work does nothing other than to reinforce your claim to ownership, or warn others that they cannot reproduce it without your consent.

Richard.

 

Richard,

Sorry see what you mean and I worded it badly. Yes, copyright is implicit for the generator of said works, but notifying others that it may/may not be reproduced does require some form of notice (i think as a means of demonstrating you wish to enforce copyright?!).

As for employers [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] how annoying that they own the copyright on some of my work having said that... if i did the work in unpaid overtime on my pc at home, would that mean I own the intellectual property on it?

Jim

 

Jim, the 'employment' thing is really difficult. There are moral issues as well legal ones. Let's stick to the legal

The difficulty as I see it is whether or not what you are creating in your own time with your own materials is directly related to your employment. A simple test question is "if I was not employed by so-and-so, would I have been able to create this work?" Very often the honest answer is 'no'. How can you not at least be influenced by what you do eight hours a day?

Now it gets tricky, legally you might be in trouble. But morally, you should be in the clear. Thew law is an ***. Frankly, I think the pre-1988 Act was more realistic. Not that that's any help... sorry!

Richard.

PS Edited to add, copyright is very rarely an issue unless money is involved - ie you're making money and by so doing are preventing others from doing the same. Not easy decisions, which is why 13 years of case law have created a nightmare of the Act.

PPS The more I learn about this, and the higher the bills rise from our comapany solicitors, the more I think that the legal institutions are a self-fulfilling cartel. The law should be nothing more than common sense; sadly is it is often nonsense wrapped up in mumbo-jumbo.

[Edited by Hoppy - 3/19/2002 2:05:36 AM]

 

Thanks for that Hoppy I'll take the moral high ground then! Think I'd be on to a looser anyway because there was a nice clause in my contract saying that anything i produce is property of the company.

I'm only just finding out about copyright (sheesh, didn't realise my company had such a big intellectual rights department) since I've only recently started on a couple of projects that require us to copyright the work, but it's interesting stuff (if you're sad like me!).

Jim