Trademarks, Service Marks & Copyrights

Trademarks and Service Marks:

Trademarks and Service Marks are types of "intellectual" property that you probably use in your business. A trademark or service mark is your brand name or logo used in connection with the sale of goods or services. If you use trademarks and service marks in your business, you should consider taking action to protect your investment in and the value to these marks. Properly registering marks will increase their value and enable you to protect your investment in these marks from competitors and others who use your marks (i.e. steal from you) in their own business.

The marks you use in your business are considered property or assets and will have value just like any other asset used in your business. You need to register the mark in order to protect your asset. Registering the mark confers upon you, as the owner of the mark, the following benefits:

1. Shows ownership and validity of the trademark;
2. Provides nationwide protection for the trademark;
3. Provides protection against counterfeit products;
4. Publishes the owner's right to the trademark to third parties;
5. Gives you the ability to block the importation of products that infringe the trademark; and
6. Provides for treble damages in cases of trademark infringement.

Trademark and service mark (and copyright) registration afford distinctive protection of your products and services and confer upon you a competitive advantage you may not want to be without. They are in effect legal monopolies and well worth considering.

If you desire to protect your business trademarks, please contact the Firm to schedule a free initial consultation. My Firm can provide this service to you.

Copyrights:

A copyright is a form of protection afforded to the authors of original works of authorship of certain intellectual works, including lyrics, musical scores, literary compositions, works made available over the Internet (including text, artwork, music audiovisual, sounds, etc.), computer programs (including the code and everything emanating from the code such as the format of the text and graphics on the computer screen when a website is viewed) and automated databases.

If your business develops intellectual works, you should consider taking action to register your work - in order to protect your investment in and the value of this important asset. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to do and to authorize to do the following: to reproduce the work in copies, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies to the public for sale or other transfer of ownership, including rental, lease or lending, to perform the work publically and to display the work publically.

Copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection. Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration. Among those advantages are the following:

1. Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
2. Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of US origin.
3. If made within a certain time, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright.
4. If made within a certain time, registration will make statutory damages and attorney's fees available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
5. Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the US Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.

If you desire to copyright any intellectual property of your business, please contact the Firm to schedule a free initial consultation.