January 1, 2010, Newsletter Issue #200: Registering Your Logo as Copyrighted Material

Tip of the Week

Before you consider hiring an invention submission company to help you obtain possible sellers for your new invention, peruse some inventor information and make sure that product is safely protected. You should fully investigate patent law and filing appropriate patent claims. But if you also created a logo to enhance your packaging, that logo should be copyrighted. Copyrights are handled in a different way than patents. Copyrights protect pictorial and other types of graphic works. It ensures you can profit from your creative work in this area. It gives you control on how and when your specific product logo is used or produced. Since a logo can contribute so greatly to your brand and consumer loyalty, you should obtain copyright protection. In the US, a copyright is essentially in effect as soon as you create an original work. But, for a small fee, you can register your copyrighted materials with the US Copyright Office. This will give you a much better chance of winning any copyright disputes that may occur. Before you consider registering a logo as copyrighted, you should search available databases to ensure that no one else has a similar logo in use. If logos are considered too similar, they can cause confusion in the minds of consumers so be careful your copyright does not infringe on someone else's. Sometimes symbols are considered too familiar to be copyrighted. You cannot copyright words or phrases so it you have a tag-line to describe your product or brand name that should be trademarked through the US Patent and Trademark Office. To obtain more detailed and current information about copyrights, visit copyright.gov.

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This weekly Invention Tips newsletter is brought to you by InventHelp, "The Invent Help People," America's leading inventor service firm. InventHelp can assist you in trying to submit your invention or new product idea to companies, as well as help you obtain affordable patent services. To request more information, visit www.inventhelp.com or call toll-free 1-800-INVENTION.