Thursday, January 20

Copyright vs. Copywrite

Every now and again, someone drops by our site (and now our blog) looking to protect their work with a 'copywrite'. What these fine folks are really looking for is a 'copyright'. We certainly understand the confusion, which I'll explain in a moment.

First, if you are visiting to 'copyright' your work, the best thing to do is type 'copyright' into the google search engine below. Google will list a number of different companies that provide copyright and trademark information, resources, and services. The costs vary, but some companies may make the process a little simpler than contacting the U.S. Register of Copyright in Washington D.C. While I'm certainly no attorney, I have heard of another way to protect your work (and have used it in the past for non-commercial work): mail a copy of the manuscript, story, etc. to yourself and then file the sealed envelope away.

As far as our name, 'Copywrite, Ink.' is a play on the professional designation 'copywriter,' which is used to define people who write for advertising agencies (eg. ad copy as in advertising body copy). When I founded the company in 1991 as a freelance writer, I wanted to create a brand that was immediately recognizable: copywrite (as in copywriter) and ink (for obvious reasons). Our trademark was created a couple years later. It's an ink spot with the 'copyright' symbol inside. Today, it's a registered trademark (a copyright symbol set inside the ink spot). Of course, we make no legal claims on the copyright symbol as tempting as that might sound. Grin.

3 comments:

Rich on 1/24/05, 12:29 PM said...

Glad we were able to help.

Rich on 8/26/06, 10:11 PM said...

Now, you can also click on the ''Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks'' link (right column) for a simple, moderate level book covering the subject.

Rich on 10/14/07, 2:04 PM said...

We have since changed that direct link. Check our new Amazon Book Shuffle for the book.

 

Blog Archive

by Richard R Becker Copyright and Trademark, Copywrite, Ink. © 2021; Theme designed by Bie Blogger Template