Trademarks and Copyrights??????

[fnorfurfoot]

I know that one is for images and the other is for written material or something like that. I was wondering if anyone knew more about these and how they can be used. Someone mentioned in another thread something about how Villari lost the USSD name because he didn't protect it properly. How do you protect a name of a system? What about a school patch or something like that? What do these protections cost? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SifuPhil]

To my limited understanding, a copyright is used to protect things like books, recordings, articles and photographs - intellectual properties. A trademark is used to register and protect a "mark of trade" - a slogan, design or logo.

One funny point about copyrights - they don't necessarily protect you the way you might think. They only give you the right to bring legal action against someone infringing on your work.

I would think that if you came up with your own system or style, you would register your system name as a trademark.

As for costs - trademarks are a few hundred dollars each; copyrights a bit less. Depends if you do it yourself or have an attorney help you.

Check out the US Patent and Trademark Office for a lot more details (and a lot more legalese LOL).

 

[Ping898]

I asked my buddy who works at the USPTO this is his response:

There are two types of patents design and utility patents. Utility patents are more for machines, computer programs, things thare useful. More information about patents can be found here
http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm

As far as protecting a name, school logo, or something of that nature, that is a Trademark. More information about those can be found at
http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm

Both are done by our office, and both have varying degrees of cost based on the size of the company seeking protection for the invention or trade name.