Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents
Posted by Jeff as TerminologyI love it when news like this gets the front page every now and then; it encourages people to look further into the story and its repercussions in their own goings-on. In the bloggers’ case, this means understanding what a copyright, a trademark, or a patent can do for your write-ups and original images, audio and video. Most people confuse one with the other, so I’ll take a shot at helping most of us who aren’t very legalese, and to those who’d rather not scour through pages-long entries from Wikipedia:
I’ll start with the easiest one - the copyright. A copyright is no more than a declaration of how you intend your work to be used. In most printed material, this is the statement that reads “not to be reproduced in print or electronically”. Most bloggers, however, opt for one of the Creative Commons License flavors that allow the work to be reproduced (there are differences from one Creative Commons flavor to another, such as whether the original work may be reproduced for profit on certain conditions) generally because the blog is intended to reach the widest audience. Associated symbol: ©
A trademark could be your blog’s icon, avatar, logo, catchphrase – basically anything you intend to associate with your blog that’s easily discernible. For example, Engadget’s iconic “e” with the RSS rays may be trademarked, but full-sized banner and its associated color scheme, typefaces, images may not –(there are some out there that have been willingly signed off by legal firms, although that’s another story altogether). Another thing about trademarks –while there are instances where similar trademarks might exist as long as they do not exist in the same industry and/or result to confusion, trademark holders for ubiquitous names such as “Apple” that extend beyond their respective industries and become household names may contest for a case; for example, the famous Apple computer and Apple Corps shared the same name and the apple (the fruit) logo. More information on that here. Associated symbol: ® ™
A patent is a claim to a new idea, invention, process. Most bloggers need not worry about patenting (unless you’d like to patent the algorithms in the blogging platform you wrote yourself, like my friend here), but I threw this one in here as most people get it confused with the trademark. Patents are mostly associated with intellectual property, and like trademarks, are acquired through accredited legal firms and are bound to the countries where they apply.
-
Design and Themes
Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?
Last night I checked my personal blog’s code hoping I can proudly display the W3C Validated Button. Since I use Blogger and do not really do anything to clean up the code (beyond adding Alt-tags to the images I embed) I wasn’t surprised at all to find that my blog contained lots of errors - [...]
Read on
More Design and Themes Features -
Software and Widgets
Wordpress Plug-ins
If you blog using Wordpress and can’t do something that you want done like adding Sphere-related content at the end of your blog posts you might be surprised to find out that there are already plug-ins available that make it happen.
Read on
To find good Wordpress plug-ins all you need to do is search for “wordpress [...]
More Software and Widgets Features -
Reviews
A Friend In Need
I’m helping out my friends from the UA&P - IShareHappiness Blog Team.
Read on
Whenever you feel pessimistic, angry, troubled, frustrated, and depressed – what have you – you need someone to talk to. Someone who could help you be more optimistic and help make you feel that there is hope. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to someone [...]
More Blog Reviews -
Monetization
Making Money Through Consumer Generated Ads
As I mentioned in my previous post today I will be suggesting some ways you can still profit by joining programs such as Pay Per Post and yet ensure that your readers don’t get turned off.
Read on
In my opinion the only way to really do this is by making sure that your blog entries stay [...]
More Monetization Features -
Marketing and Search Optimization
Building your blog brand step by step
Building your blog’s brand does not need to be difficult. However, when it comes to branding you should always remember to exert effort to be consistent with the image you wish to portray or you’ll end up with confused, turned-off, and/or skeptical readers. Branding inconsistencies will make it obvious that the image you’re putting up [...]
Read on
More Marketing and SEO Features -
Blog Resources
SUBSCRIBE
Via RSS FeedCATEGORIES
- Blog Tutorials News
- Design and Themes
- Featured Articles
- Marketing and Search Optimization
- Monetization
- Software and Widgets
- Writing
CONTRIBUTORS
RESOURCES
BLOG METRICS
Leave a reply