WIll a dated and notarized document with my artwork on it hold up in a copyright infringement cort case?

Question

I designed a logo for a company I'm trying to start. I'm looking for the cheapest, quickest way to copyright protect my logo. If I print the logo then have a notary public sign, date, and notarize it(copyright registration with the govt. is a pain), is that enough to hold up in court if necessary? If someone else registers my logo with the govt., will my notarized document be enough to get them "unregistered"?

Answer 1

What you want is trademark, not copyright. And to establish trademark you either have to register it or use it in your course of business. If you just do what you said, and someone else, having not seen your design, registers it and/or uses it for their business, you won't have a case of infringement. In addition, if you haven't registered but have used it, you only have protection in your area or the area where you're selling your product or service.

P.S. The Poor Man's Copyright is a myth, it does not hold up in court.

Answer 2

You're confused about which type of protection you need. Copyright already exists in your work. Your logo, however, might benefit from trademark protection, which gives you the right to be associated exclusively with the mark and to sue for substantial damages if anyone else uses it WITHOUT FIRST OBTAINING a licensing agmt from you for big bucks.

IP protection aside from copyright is not cheap or easy. The question is whether the likelihood of infringement and the effects of infringement (i.e., YOU might have to pay someone who takes out a TM registration on your logo before you) make the substantial investment in legal fees worthwhile.

Trust me: If there was enough money at stake in the ownership of your logo to justify a court fight, you would DEFINITELY want better protection than some cheap notary seal, which, frankly, signifies next to nothing at law.

Answer 3

As soon as you created it and placed it into some tangiable form it was copyrighted, but in order to have full protection under copyright laws you must formaly register with the U.S. Copyright Office. The following is their web-site and any questions you could possibly have will be answered within.

Answer 4

What the hell?! Every members who watched the videos?! Viacom is crazy, they can't just sue all the members who watched the videos. But still, they could sue us. Who knows? Viacom should just leave youtube alone. Seriously, Youtube tried really hard to rid coyright infringement videos and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure that there are few copyright infringement videos on Youtube.

Answer 5

No, it is not enough.

In order to keep your logo, you need to register it/copyright it.

Otherwise, it is not protected, and anyone can get a copyright on the logo.

The copyright process is meant to put others on notice that something is protected, and cannot be used without permission.

Answer 6

Do the "Poor Mans Copyright" Print it out and mail it to yourself, keep the envelope and don't open it. The postmark is proof that you had that idea in your possession at that given date. The postmark can't be faked so it holds up in court.

Answer 7

Yes it will help. Technically you own the rights to it once it is created. It just gets difficult to prove when you did it.

Your artwork is probably safe even w/o protection.

Answer 8

Sounds like a good idea to me.write short letter on how you designer it and not at work.If you did it at work.it's the property of the firm,business,company.

Answer 9

I suggest you do some more researching. There ARE cheaper & easier ways, such as free registry services.

Answer 10

as THE SAYING GOES"NO PAIN NO GAIN" FOLLOW GOVT. REQUIREMENTS