Copyright or Trademark? Which one is the protection you need?
All credit to the original author and Gay, Jones, Kuhn PLLC. The source article can be found here.
You launched your own business. Congrats! You have checked all the initial boxes to launch like your business plan, consultations with an attorney and an accountant, registration with the Secretary of State’s office, business checking account, etc. Congrats again! There has been chatter about your business, and it is growing. Fast forward several months, you have hired employees, and your business is turning a promising profit. You feel like your business is about to explode. Are you ready? What can you do to protect your business and brand before it really takes off?
Consider the intellectual property of your business. Your idea has become a real business and must be treated like one. You may not realize it, but your business likely has intellectual property assets that may need protection. Depending on what type of business you have this can vary. You may be an influencer or blog writer, a tech developer, a retail business, designer, photographer, etc. What you are in the business of doing will impact what intellectual property you have. For example, a tech company may have an original database that needs protection; a photography business has images that need protecting; while companies of all types should consider whether their logos, phrases, or designs used in marketing their brands need protection. Consulting an experienced business or intellectual property lawyer is the first step in identifying your needs and ensuring you make the right moves to protect your brand and business.
Copyright
Copyright protects an original work of authorship that exists in a tangible form (i.e., paper, film, canvas, digital format, etc.). Copyright exists as soon as the original work is fixed in a tangible form and belongs to the author who created the work. The copyright is good for the author’s lifetime plus… continue reading here.
Additional resources
Go straight to the source by checking out these resources from the U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Trademark and Patent Office.
What is copyright? (Copyright.gov)
Trademark vs. Copyright vs. Patent (U.S. Trademark and Patent Office)