Copyrights

The U.S. Copyright Law of 1976 protects works of expression automatically as soon as they are put in tangible form. Keep in mind that this is a federal law and does not vary among the states. The creator is the owner of this intellectual property and is the only person who can use the material freely.

The scope of the copyright gives the owner, or others as assigned, the exclusive rights to duplication, modification, distribution, public performance, and public display. Copyright protects original works, but it does not protect common ideas.

Works created after 1978 are the author's life plus 70 years. In the case of multi-authors, the term of protection encompasses the life of the last surviving author plus 70 years.In work for hire, where an employee or independent contractor creates a work within contractual terms, the employer owns the copyright. Duration of the protection is the shorter of either 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation.

Works ineligible for copyright

Facts - General knowledge or common information

Ideas - Not fixed in tangible expression

Government document - Publications by federal government

Public domain - Works whose copyright expired or was not renewed

Fair use - For purposes of teaching, scholarship, literary criticism or review, news reporting, research

Copyright concepts:

A fact cannot be copyrighted. A list of facts cannot be copyrighted. However, when I write a document that lists the facts, but also includes my opinions or add original content in addition to the facts, I can copyright that document.

Fair use allows you to quote from someone else's works. You could use the same facts as I do, you can quote my opinions, and talk about my original content in your work, and create a new document, and that becomes your work which can be copyrighted.

Fair use prohibits copyrighting material that cannot be construed as being unique.

Public domain is a term you will hear to describe information that considered to be available to anyone and not subject to copyright.

Public Domain includes very old documents that have expired copyrights, have never been copyrighted, or documents created by the government using taxpayers money, and therefore belong to everyone. You can produce an original document, and proclaim it to be "Public Domain" this means you do not wish to copyright it, but no one else can either.

Obtaining a Copyright

Ownership status, and therefore copyright protection, are automatically conferred when a work of expression is tangibly expressed. Written notice of copyright is not necessary; however, notice is usually attached and consists of:
Copyright symbol © or the word Copyright.
The year of first publication.
The name of the owner.

Registering with Copyright Office

All copyrights are done through the Library of Congress and require only filling out a few forms and submitting them with the requisite fee. Copyright law information can be found at this link to the Library of Congress. (pdf file). To copyright your material, a notice of copyright (. ©. , or . Copyright. ) should clearly appear within the work and two copies should be submitted within three months of first being published with the copyright office. Since the copyright is good for such a lengthy duration of time, there is no justifiable reason for violating such, and repercussions can occur at any time (no statute of limitations). Penalties are determined by the legal process and can range from restitution to more severe. The copyright law was modified in 1999 to include the issue of domain names. This law was to combat cybersquatting, the dot com registration of a name of a well known company.

You can sue for infringement. If your work was registered prior to the date of the infringement, you can collect statutory damages and attorney's fees.

Trademarking

Trademarks are covered by a trademark law. You can trademark words, slogans, or other terms that identify a product or service. A trade name is a name that a business is known by in the business world. When a name is trademarked it means that others cannot use it for a similar product or service.

Servicemark

A domain name-being a title-cannot be copyrighted; however, if the applicant shows that the domain will provide services over the Internet, it can receive a trademark, or more likely, a servicemark. A servicemark identifies the source of a service and normally appears in advertising.

Difference between a trademark and a copyright?

You can trademark words, slogans, or other terms that identify a product or service. Copyright assigns ownership to a creative item such as a piece of writing, a graphic, or a piece of music.

Patents

Are for inventions. (Physical Products). Patents come in two forms: utility and design. Utility patents refer to how an article is used and works. Design patents refer to how an article looks. An article can be protected by both a design and utility patent.

Intellectual property.

The concepts of copyrighting, trademarking, and patents are collectively referred to as intellectual property. The concepts described here are based on U.S. law, not all countries of the world agree to abide by the same intellectual property laws, and some countries have no clear laws in place.

Many countries participate in international copyright trade agreements. The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention offer international protection to member countries

To learn more. Questy is not a lawyer, and these brief definitions are by no means meant to give legal advice, but simply introduce you to the concepts. Go to the source and research and learn more about these webmastering issues. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is the new organization that administers domain names. Check out their site on Domain-Name Dispute Resolution.

A trademark is a symbols or trade name associated with a product or service. The trademark is the first step to acquiring a registered trademark. The US Government Site on Trademarks is the best place to start as far as learning more.

The U.S. Library of Congress site for Copyright Basics is the place to follow up and learn more on copyrights. The official Web site of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is your source for trademarking and patent information.

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