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What is a Copyright?

· A Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished.

The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly.

The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine. Copyrights are registered by the Library of Congress Copyright Office.

Some intellectual property may require more than one form of protection, such as Patent, Trademark, and Copyright. An attorney should be consulted to determine the most comprehensive form of protection available to you.

What is a Trademark or Service Mark?

· A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.
· A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Throughout this booklet, the terms "trademark" and "mark" refer to both trademarks and service marks.

· Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents are all different forms of protection, and while more than one form of protection may be used on the same thing, it should not be assumed that one type of protection crosses over to protect outside of its scope.