How to Use This Material

The course consists of a CD and this companion book. This is a self-directed study course, where you get to determine how fast or slow you go. You control your pace and the amount of information you take in. At the end of each lesson, you’ll be given a short quiz to help you digest the information you’ve learned in that section.

 

Francine Ward

January 2007

Lesson 1 : What Is a Copyright?

Someone recently asked me to copyright her book title. “It can’t be done,” I said. “You cannot copyright a book title.” If a book title is to be protected at all, it would likely be through trademark protection or some form of contract. “You’re wrong,” she insisted, “My friend copyrighted his book.” As I listened more closely to what she said, I realized she had confused copyrighting her book with copyrighting the book’s title. I thought to myself, I wonder how many other people have made that very same mistake, or how many people, in some way, have confused copyrights with trademarks? So, while they are both part of the family called intellectual property—something you own, which you design, develop, conceive, or construct with your own creative mind or intellect—the similarity between copyrights and trademarks ends there. Let’s define both.

A copyright is a legal form of protection afforded to any original work of art or authorship that has been reduced to a tangible or physical form. An example of a tangible form is when an idea is put on paper, a painting on canvas, music or words to a song put on cassette or CD, or a speech recorded on video. Copyright protects the expression of a creative and original idea, not the idea itself. And your work is protected the moment you convert that original idea into something you can hear, see, or touch. That’s what’s meant by tangible. (However, later in the process we’ll explore additional ways to protect your valuable copyrights.) For now, all you need to know is that for a copyright to be valid the work must be original and tangible.

A trademark is a distinctive word, name, phrase, logo, design, symbol, sound, color, smell, or a combination of the above that identifies the source of goods or services. It simply tells the marketplace, including you the consumer, who owns what product or service. It lets you know from whom to purchase products and services and to whom to complain when there’s a problem. For example, the golden arches are a protectable trademark of McDonald’s, the swoosh symbol is a protectable mark of Nike, the doink doink sound on the television show Law & Order is a protectable mark of the Law & Order franchise, and the color pink used in fiberglass insulation products is a protectable mark of the Owens Corning Company. We’ll cover trademarks in more detail in Lessons 8-11. Table 1 sums up the differences between a copyright and a trademark.

What can be protected by copyright? Almost any original, creative work of art or authorship. The U.S. Copyright Act has come up with eight categories of works that can be protected by copyright: literary; dramatic; musical; pictorial, graphics, or sculptural; motion pictures and other audiovisual; pantomimes; sound recordings; and architectural designs.

Although these categories may seem narrowly defined, they really aren’t. Over time, the courts have interpreted them quite broadly. For example, computer programs can be registered as literary works. (See Table 2 for more examples.)

 

Table 1. Copyright and trademark.

 

Copyright	Trademark
A legal form of protection afforded to any original work of art or authorship that has been reduced a tangible or physical form	A distinctive word, name, phrase, design, symbol, sound, or smell that identifies the source of a good or service
Examples: • an idea on paper  • a painting on canvas • music or lyrics to a song on a cassette or a CD • a videotaped speech	Examples:  • McDonald’s golden arches  • Nike’s swoosh symbol  • Law & Order’s distinctive sounds

 

Table 2. What can be protected by copyright?

 

Category	Examples
Literary	Books, articles, workbooks, newsletters, ezines, and computer software
Dramatic	Broadway plays
Musical	Printed or sheet music
Pictorial, graphics, or sculptural	Cartoons, photographs, and sculptures
Motion pictures and other audiovisual	Movies, documentaries, and videotaped speeches
Pantomimes	Pantomimes and choreographed material
Sound recordings	Speeches, music, and any spoken word
Architectural designs	Architectural designs

 

Your Copyright Workshop Part 1. Identify Protected Items Let’s take a look at a short list of things that can be protected by copyright. This list includes items that you personally created or items that you hired someone else to create. It also includes items you never knew could be protected by copyright. Take a moment to review the list in Table 3 and then place a mark next to the item that you own. Identifying what you own is the first step in protecting your valuable copyrights. This mini intellectual property audit will assist you in doing that.   Part 2. Identify Items That Cannot Be Copyright Protected Now let’s look at a few things that cannot be protected by copyright and some possible ways you can protect them (see Table 4).

 

Table 3. Intellectual property audit.

 

Work of art or authorship		Work of art or authorship
Books (fiction or nonfiction)		Photographs
E-books		Videos
Articles		Overheads
Workbooks		Training materials
Newsletters		One sheets
Magazines		Brochures
E-zines		Choreographic work
Cartoons		Pantomimes
Speeches		Musical compositions
Program handouts		Sound recordings
Position papers		Screenplays
Websites		Documentaries
Streaming videos		Plays
Audiocassettes		Motion pictures
Home-study courses		Software
Questionnaires		Surveys
Online marketing materials		Computer source code
E-questionnaires		E-surveys
Quizzes		Distance learning curriculums
Graphics		Paintings
Architectural designs		Blueprints, building designs

 

Table 4. What cannot be protected by copyright.

 

Things to be protected	Possible ways to protect them
Idea submissions	Put the idea into a tangible form, or use a confidentiality agreement before disclosing information
Slogans	Apply for a trademark
Designs	Apply for a trademark or a patent
Logos	Apply for a trademark
Colors	Apply for a trademark
Fragrances	Apply for a trademark
Names	Apply for a trademark
Book titles	Apply for a trademark, in specific instances
Concepts	Apply for a patent
Methods	Apply for a patent
Processes	Apply for a patent
Inventions	Apply for a patent
Plant strains	Apply for a patent