Copyright Photographs, Copyright Songs, Copyright Manuscripts

One of the points that I’ve been asked about the most in my career is “how do I copyright photographs” or “how do I copyright songs?”

I of course have always said that they automatically own copyright, but I know that they would have a problem proving that in court. The answer would be to have a completly independent third party verify the time and date that they created their files.

Over the weekend a friend showed me this site called ProveMyCopyright.com which does exactly that. My favourite thing about it is that it does it completly over the internet so you don’t have to wait four to six months to get registered. Also they offer 5Gb of account space for file backups and copyright which I think is great, even more than wordpress allows, but with copyright registration too.

What you need to know about Intellectual Protection

Intellectual Protection does not have to be a mystery. Lets look at the five most useful methods of intellectual protection, Patents, Copyright, Trademarks and Design Rights.

Patents

Patents are basicly an intellectual protection reward for the inventor of a product or system to share the knowledge of how he or she done it. With the granting of a patent, the methods and technology become public knowledge and can be seen by all. In return, the holder of a patent has exclusive rights for a fixed period of time to do whatever he or she sees fits with the product including exclusive rights to commercialisation. It is possible to patent an idea. See more information in the patent section below.

Copyright

The most common form of intellectual protection is copyright. It is not possible to copyright an idea. Copyright comes into force instantly when something is created in a tangible form. This can include songs, music, photos, manuscripts, books etc. Copyright gives the creator of a work exclusive rights to reproduce and profit from that work. Copyright law is accepted by 163 countries who signed the Berne convention. Copyright can be registered online as proof that a person actually made the material in question. A name can not be copyright. See more information in the copyright section below.

Trademarks

A common form of intellectual protection used by companies are trademarks. Names and words used to trade under can be protected by Trademarks. Trademarks come in two forms a non-registered trade mark (TM) and a registered trademark (R). Non registered trademarks are free, but you have to be able to prove that you were the original claiment of the trademark in court to be able to fight off infringers. Registered trademarks have to be payed for but give more protection in court as a date of registration is known. See more information in the trademarks section below.

Design Rights

Design Rights are a similar form of intellectual protection to copyrights, but apply to things such as patterns , fabrics, forms etc. They can be unregistered or registered in a similar way to Trademarks. The first ever design right was granted in the United Kingdom in 1787. See more information in the Design Rights section below.