A Few Final Notes Regarding Registration

As mentioned earlier, once you receive your first piece of communication from the USPTO, you can monitor the progress of your application at anytime online. Make sure you record the serial number of your application in a safe place, as that will be your reference number for checking your application status.

Carefully read every piece of communication the USPTO sends you. Each document is important, and each is time sensitive. If you miss a deadline, the USPTO will likely deem your application abandoned, in which case you lose your application fee and valuable time. Although you can start the process again, you will be required to pay another fee and possibly need to hire an attorney to handle the problem for you. Thus, it’s not worth missing a deadline!

 

For More Information

For additional information on submission requirements and the registration process, go to www.uspto.gov.

Afterword

We've now come to the end of our Staying Legal Guide. My goal was to provide you with useful, easy-to-understand, ready-toapply legal information. You now have enough knowledge to help you

 

1. identify works that can be protected by copyright and trademark

2. protect your valuable copyrights and trademarks

3. select a trademark that can be protected by law

4. register both your copyrights and your trademarks

5. avoid being sued for copyright infringement.

 

This was just an overview, designed to get you thinking about the basics of copyright and trademark law and to provide you with the answers to questions you never even thought to ask. Perhaps the information you received even raised a few more questions. If so, I encourage you to consult with a legal expert to help you resolve any specific issues you might have. At least now you will be able to discuss your concerns with confidence.

Until next time, I'm Francine Ward (www.stayinglegalguide.com, Francine@stayinglegalguide.com).

Resources Copyrights and Licenses

• American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP): www.ascap.com (provides music licenses)

• Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI): www.bmi.com (provides music licenses)

• Copyright Clearance Center: www.copyright.com (source for articles from newspapers and magazines)

• Harry Fox Agency: www.nmpa.org/hfa.html (provides synchronization licenses when using music in conjunction with multimedia programs)

• Media Image Resource Alliance: www.mira.com (source for photographs and online images)

• Motion Picture Licensing Corporation: www.mplc.com (provides video and film clip licenses)

• Music Bakery: www.musicbakery.com (royalty-free music)

• Society of European Stage Authors & Composers (SESAC): www.sesac.com (provides music licenses)

• United Media: www.unitedmedia.com (provides cartoon licenses)

Fair Use Legal Cases

COPYING FOR EDUCATION

• Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko’s Graphics Corp.—Copying material from books for use in course materials

• Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corp. v. Crooks—Recording television programs for use in classroom

• Princeton University Press v. Michigan Document Services, Inc.—Copying material from books for use in course materials

COPYING FOR RESEARCH

• American Geophysical Union v. Texaco Inc.—Photocopying of scholarly articles by corporations for use in research

• Sundeman v. The Seajay Society, Inc. —Use of quoted material in oral presentations; copying for websites and public dissemination

INTERNET AND WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

• Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp.—Internet search engine copied photographs from the web for use as thumbnails

• Los Angeles Times v. Free Republic—Posting full newspaper articles on Internet bulletin board website

MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

• Higgins v. Detroit Educational Television Foundation—Use of music in educational video for public television

PREPARATION OF PUBLICATIONS

• Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc.—Trivia book created based on popular television show

• Maxtone-Graham v. Burtchaell—Use of excerpts from out-ofprint book in new work

• Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God—Reprinting entire copy of out-of-print work

USES OF PHOTOGRAPHS

• Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp.—Photos copied off web for use as thumbnails

• Nunez v. Caribbean International News Corp. —Controversial photos published by newspaper without permission

• Tiffany Design, Inc. v. Reno-Tahoe Specialty, Inc.—Photograph digitally scanned and elements inserted into new photograph

Legal Resources and Consultants

• American Bar Association: www.abanet.org (lawyer referrals)

• Copyright Act: www.copyright.gov/title17/

• Findlaw: www.findlaw.com (resource for legal information and finding a lawyer)

• Freeadvice: www.freeadvice.com (resource for basic legal information)

• Law Info: www.lawinfo.com (resource for finding a lawyer)

• Legal Zoom: www.legalzoom.com (online legal resource)

• The Nolo Press: www.Nolo.com (resource for legal products and information)

• Publishing Law Center: www.publaw.com (resource for legal publishing information)

• Stanford University: www.fairuse.stanford.edu (resource for legal information on fair use)

• Thomson & Thomson: www.thomson-thomson.com (copyright and trademark search firm/monitoring services)

• Trademark Law: www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmlaw2.html (Trademark Act)