Copyrights protect tangible works like books, songs, and poems. If this is part of your business, copyrights can help you protect your intellectual property. This article examines this aspect and some of the ways that copyrights can affect your business.
Copyrights are used to protect tangible works of art or creative works of expressions like books, research papers, songs and business publications. If you have works like these that you’d like to protect, you’ll want to perform the required steps to acquire copyright protection.
Note: A copyright does not protect your business name or logo; trademarks are used for those things. There are other, significant differences between copyrights and trademarks, and it’s important to understand them.
It’s important to understand that you can’t use information in your own publications or on your web site that has already been copyrighted by someone else unless you get permission from the owner to use it. Copyrights protect individuals’ intellectual property from just that kind of misuse. Before you photocopy any part of a work, book, publication or web site, make sure you are aware of the work’s copyright status and that you do not plan to use the information in any work you plan to make public or copyright yourself.
Additionally, note that you can’t copyright an idea or a business method; this means it’s okay to use someone else’s ideas or techniques, even if someone tells you that you can’t. When in doubt, ask to see the copyright. It's okay to use someone else's ideas; you can't copyright an idea.
Finally, there is a “fair use” doctrine regarding copyright. Almost all fair use actions fall into two categories: Parody (such as Weird Al Yankovic’s song parodies) or Comment/Criticism (such as quoting from a book or poem) for the purpose of critiquing the work. The latter also allows for the quoting of information for use in reports or publications or for use in a court case.
Note: The Berne copyright convention states that every creative work is copyrighted the moment it is fixed in tangible form. Registering a copyright isn’t actually required, although it is helpful in legal disputes.