Re: FLASH: POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT - HELP PLS!

[Rodney Entwosle]

Not being a lawyer I cant claim to be 100% correct but I have studied

copyright trademark etc for over a decade.


I know more about copyright internationaly but I strongly suspect that you

will need a trademark. In some countries a cheaper way is to create a

Limited Liability company (Ltd.) and this does protect your company name in

these countries and protects it from many similar countries.. eg. a company

called "Digital Monkey and Video Ltd" has protection from other companies

wanting to start up under the name "Digital Monkey Ltd." Now Im assuming

your in USA so I cant say 100% for sure.. call a company accountant as they

will know the local laws... Some seem to vary from state to state.


But if you have created artwork, a formula, a musical score, code, or a

peice of text that is long enough to be original (NO not a name, word or

phrase as they are not long enough) then these are imediatly copyrighted to

the creator.. all you need to do then is make sure you can prove you created

it and on what date.


A trademark is for company names or icons... but you can only trademark

names for sertain activities... Apple computers has "Apple" for computer use

Apple Records has it for music use as there are companuies using it for

medical equipment etc...


Watch for bad faith situations too... if you want a trademark like OperaWin

for example then you would NEED to talk to a good lawyer in USA for that...

USA seems to base a lot on "Bad Faith" laws... of course if you had a site

where people could go in the draw to win opera tickets then that may just

stand up in court but expect the legal action to bancrupt the company before

you get to court.


Hope this has been some help... Unfortunatly I'm pretty sure you cant get

protection by doing what you wanted to... if you dont have cash imediatly

you may be able to get an accountant to put a hold on a Ltd. company name

for 30 days untill you have the capital (I did this in NZ).


----- Original Message -----

From: "francis acquaye" <

facquayeyahoo [dot] com

>

To: <

flasherchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 10:48 AM

Subject: FLASH: POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT - HELP PLS!



> Hi:

> What are the options for registering a name

> (website/company etc). A web search was conducted and

> as far as I know, no one has used that name.

>  I understand that it can cost upwards of $600 to

> tie a name down.

>   Are there comparable ways (IE: Registered mail to

> yourself) to do this, other than being the absolute

> first person to use the name?

>   Thanks in advance for any help fellow Flashers!




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