RE: Re: Protecting Ideas

One of my potential clients got a registration (and a nice settlement from an infringer) for a poem of approximately 8 words. But I do not remember the client or the poem
(she was referred to another lawyer for conflict reasons, so I purposely "forgot" the details).  

Roland J. Cole, J.D., Ph.D.
Director of Technology Policy
Sagamore Institute for Policy Research
340 West Michigan, Canal Suite B
INDIANAPOLIS IN 46202
317-727-8940; rollie@sipr.org; www.sipr.org <http://www.sipr.org/>  

From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property
[mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Michael Graham
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 8:00 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Protecting Ideas

Not legal advice, and perhaps apocryphyl, but unless the design is entitled to protection as a work of visual arts, a short enough phrase to be printed on a bumper sticker probably is not sufficient to be entitled to copyright protection. I recall an old truth that the shortest legally copyrighted work was a 12 word "poem" by Archibald MacLeish: "Pity the poor hippopotamus, That cannot tell its top from its bottomus." But I could be wrong.  

Michael R. Graham
From Chicago  

-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property
[mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Larry Jenks
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 4:00 PM To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Protecting Ideas

I am a newbie, and although I have read many posts from this website, I really have no background/experience in the area of intellectual property rights. But I'm pretty sure this is an easy question...

I have come up with an idea for a t-shirt or a bumper sticker. The value of the idea is really in the words used to convey the idea, not the graphic design of the words and the way they are printed/colored/shaped or otherwise composed or presented. Is there any way to protect this idea?

Larry D. Jenks AIA, CSI, NCARB

JNX Group, LLC
165 South Hudson Street
Denver, Colorado 80246

303.322.6841
720.231.0634 (cell)
303.377.0634 (fax)
www.jnxgroup.com

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