Patent, trademark, or copywrite? Please help...?

Question

I have an idea for a concept that would be in written form and online. It would be a group effort and would be ever growing changing with the participitation of the mass public.

Can someone please tell me what form would protect this "idea"? Copywrite, trademark, or patent?

Answer 1

Great question - one that I had researched years ago. Here is a brief explanation:
A PATENT -
A "Patent" applies to an INVENTION - usually o f physical product, and grants you the right to sell, or market your product, and it is designed to prevent others from marketing or selling your product UNLESS they had your permission. A Patent is good for 20 years.

A TRADEMARK -
A "Trademark" is associated with a specific company name, company logo, and I think it also applies to products, i.e. Pepsi Cola, the BigMac, etc.

A COPYRIGHT -
A "Copyright" governs all INTELLECTUAL works and grants the holder of the Copyright the legal rights to sell, market, redistribute, etc. their intellectual works - it prevents others from copying and trying to take credit for your work. A Copyright provides protection for 95 years.
IF someone infringes upon your Copyright rights, the lawsuit must be brought on in Federal Court.

If I understand your question, I suspect that you would want to apply for a "Copyright". THEN IF later on, you form a successful company in association with your intellectual works, you may want to apply for a "Trademark" to protect your company name / logo.

Nice to see that someone else also had similar thoughts.
I research things via the government offices - as in my first reference link, and I also research Legal things via Prairielaw.com - mostly workers' comp stuff.

On another note - if you need help with choosing some favorable dates to launch your endeavor, check out http://www.AstroWishes.com
Hope this has helped.

Answer 2

Hard to tell, based on your description. However, first guess -- not a patent.

As for the copyright/trademark, maybe both. Depending on the what the idea is, you can probably copyright it; this protects your version of the idea. Copyright does not protect the idea itself. For example, you can't protect "starcrossed boy and girl meet"; this is an idea. You could, if you wrote it as an original work today, protect the embodiment of that idea if it were "Romeo and Juliet"; separately, you could protect "West Side Story," or "Carousel", or any other specific, original (ie, originating with the writer) and fixed (written, recorded, etc.) version of this idea.

You might also be able to get a trademark, which identifies the source origin of what you have. If it's a product, it's a trademark. If it's a service, then a servicemark. Here, you need an amount of originality on the idea in its field. There are other requirements for a trademark, but you can research those at the library or on the government trademark site.

Note that, especially for copyright, if someone else has a similar idea, or a different embodiment of this idea, that you might not have any sort of protection at all.

Answer 3

It is not possible to protect ideas but rather the representation of that idea. Depending on what the concept is would determine the best route for you to go.

1) Is it advertising copy? A computer program? Is it files/documents/information accessed over a network? Any of these would be a copyright. Check out the sources box for some handy links.

Copyrights can be obtained for things of an artistic nature. This includes, of course, poetry, films, sculptures, music, fiction, etc. But can also include things that may not necessarily seem "artistic" in the general sense of the word. Copyrights can also be obtained for advertising copy, games, software programs and blueprints, to name just a few.

2) Is it a name, a logo, a slogan, etc. that identifies a particular product and/or service? If so, that's a trademark. Check out the sources box for some handy links.

Trademarks can be names of products or services, logos, slogans, packaging and even sounds and smells. In essence, a trademark can be almost anything that is used to identify a particular product or service. Registering a trademark grants the owner exclusive rights to the mark within the specified industry.

Of course, it's necessary to research the mark comprehensively prior to filing to ensure that there is no possibility of infringing upon another party.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 4

Copyrights (for the content) and trademarks (for any names, logos, etc.) are good to have. Both of them can be very helpful in making sure people stay out of your business. It's hard to say without more information (which I imagine you don't want to give), but if your idea involves a new process or method of doing something, you can patent it. Method patents can cover things from how to make something to business plans. You consult an agent or attorney to see if that's possible.