An Augusta attorney has advice about an often-overlooked step for every fledgling entrepreneur and individual thinking about starting a business or protecting an existing one.
There is a laundry list of top-of-mind steps, including financing, licensing, location, and competition. But just as important is protecting your name and brand.
Attorney Rachel Ray with the Enoch Tarver law firm told ABD that a vital, but overlooked step is the need to copyright material for the new business, even something as basic as the name of the business.
“If you file that with the U.S. Copyright Office, you then have the added protections of statutory damages if somebody takes that copyrightable image or item and uses it without your permission,” she explained. “That’s the copyright side of it, taking that idea, putting it into tangible form, and then making it yours.”
The Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress, has been the gatekeeper of copyrights since 1790. It registers information about ownership and claims, and provides information to the public.
“Through this work, the Copyright Office is committed to helping fulfill copyright’s Constitutional purpose and to promote creativity and free expression for the benefit of all,” reads its website.
Ray said there are two types of copyright: common law copyright and registered copyright. There are both state and federal laws that provide a common law copyright.
“But the problem with that is, in order to recover on state and federal common law copyright, you have to prove actual damages,” she explained. “You have to prove that when somebody took that copyrightable item, whatever it is, that you either lost income, you had damages of income, you lost something, or they gained something that you should have had monetarily.”
That is where securing a registered copyright is the preferable approach. It automatically makes a business eligible for statutory damages for any violation. That most immediately addresses an unwilful violation by someone unaware of the copyright.
“But, if you did know, and you willfully ignored the copyright, now it’s trouble. It’s $1,700 for a copyright infringement if you took something off the internet and used it without thinking,” she said. “But then if there’s a watermark and you found a way to remove that watermark, that’s a willful violation. Now treble the damages, and it’s going to be over $3,000 per use.”
Ray said having a copyright is particularly important for anyone in a creative field, such as an artist or a photographer.
“Every time they generate a piece of art, a photograph, an object, that original that they created is a copyrightable object,” she said. “As soon as you take that image and put it into a tangible form, that’s copyrightable, then you can monetize that and make money off of it.”
Another consideration for a business owner, whether artistic or in some other field, is establishing your brand.
“That brand that is yours is now your trademark, whatever your name, that interesting name or concept you came up with, that everybody is going to associate you with,” said Ray. “You may have 100 different copyrightable images inside your brand, but that one image, that one name, or that one phrase that everybody associates with you is who you are, and how people recognize you. The copyright is your original idea, but being put into tangible form.”
Ray said there are two options to create a registered trademark. The first is to hire an attorney with a specialty in copywriting and trademarking. However, she said it is also possible to file information directly with the U.S. Copyright Office.
“It’s a fairly easy website to navigate, and I tell people to go on and do it yourself,” she said. “For artists, most definitely, register your information on the U.S. Copyright Office, and then make sure that you include a notification of copyright, whether it’s just a C inside a circle, or you write out copyright. For the rest of the business owners, come up with a really unique brand, something that nobody else has thought of, and trademark that before somebody else does.”
More information and the process to file a copyright is at: https://www.copyright.gov/
