Questions about copyrighting designs

On Mon, 09 Mar 1998, Nancy Granade <ngranade[_at_]setechctr.org> wrote:
>
> My son has a collection of designs that he has been working on. There
> are probably at least 25 of them. These designs would be great for
> logos, wallpaper, tattoos, etc.
>
> My question is - What are the initial steps we need to take in order to
> get these designs copyrighted and how do we best market them?

Your posting didn't say what country you are in, nor what country or countries are your intended market. As you may imagine, it can make a big difference. Let's assume you are thinking of the US.

To be protected by copyright, strictly speaking all that is required is that a work has to be fixed in a tangible medium. From your email it sounds as though that has already been accomplished. Thus this is an email of good news -- the designs are (probably) already copyrighted automatically.

Your son should also consider filing registration applications with the US Copyright Office. It costs $20 per application. To learn more about that, see http://www.patents.com/copyrigh.sht which contains answers to frequently asked questions about copyright. From that page you can also link to the Benedict copyright web site, which is excellent ... and to Terry Carroll's copyright FAQ, which is also excellent ... and to Professor Field's writings about copyright, which are excellent ... and to the Copyright Office web site, which has online forms for you to use.

Carl Oppedahl
<carl[_at_]oppedahl.com> Received on Tue Mar 10 1998 - 14:04:39 GMT