Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Understanding Why Trademarks and Copyrights Matter

Creating a distinctive name, symbol, or phrase for use in your business can involve a lot of work. After all, branding companies are paid tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars to come up with the right names for new products or services. The same hard work and amount of time invested applies to a written work of art, a clever body of text used on your Web site, or an original piece of artwork: If you go to the trouble of developing unique content, it's probably worth protecting it as your own.

To understand how to protect yourself, you have to enter the Land of Legalization. Start by wrapping your brain cells around some extremely important words, as defined by the U.S. government:

• Copyright: A form of intellectual property law that protects original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. The Library of Congress registers copyrights, which last for the life of the author plus 70 years.
• Patent: A property right granted by the government of the United States to an inventor that excludes others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States, in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.
• Trademark: Protects words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services from ...