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View Full Version : Copy writing a 'motto'


N0help4u
Nov 14, 2007, 09:37 PM
I have been wanting to start my own business for years BUT
Run into all kinds of problems due mostly to lack of money and my vehicle ALWAYS breaks down at least twice a year. I have lost a lot of chances to make money mostly due to my vehicle breaking down. Anyway, when my vehicle is working I take my friends and we look for things to do to make money to get us through the day. I have business cards made up.
I want to do some Tee shirts with a motto on it. I really don't think anybody is using the motto YET but I think it would catch on with a few types of businesses and I hear of big companies suing little places for using names, mottos and gimmicks even though the nobody had it first.
I want to know how/what should I do to like copy write it or something?

My current motto is 'We give a crap about your scrap', but I am not concerned if anybody wanted to use that one.

Hope this is the right place for the ?

vingogly
Nov 15, 2007, 06:59 AM
Under the Berne Convention, copyrights are automatic and require no notice. They are in effect for 50 years after the author's death. It doesn't hurt to add a copyright notice which might give you more leverage in case of a lawsuit:

Copyright (date) by (your name)

"All rights reserved" is not legally required in most places these days. You can copyright something at LegalZoom.com fairly inexpensively, but I don't know that this gives you any greater legal protection. Personally, I wouldn't bother with it.

To be able to claim something (catch phrase, logo, etc.) as a Trademark (TM), on the other hand, does require registration as I understand it to claim trademark infringement in a court of law. You can also do this at LegalZoom.com and it costs about 3X as much as registering a Copyright.

My searches for business names (I've done four or five) has involved using the following three web sites together:

Thesaurus.com (http://thesaurus.reference.com) to help me brainstorm names

Whois (http://www.whois.net) to search for domains to fit the names

United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov) to search for existing trademarks or copyrights

Vasily