Alright, so yesterday we talked about copyright - what it is, and why it exists.

Today, as promised, I'm going to give you three real-world examples of why you need to respect the copyright and trademarks of others.

But first, let's talk about the difference between copyright, trademarks, and patents. 

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a copyright protects works of authorship. This includes books, music and lyrics, and "works of art that have been tangibly expressed."

Trademark is a "word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others."

And its big brother, service mark, "is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods."

And finally, a patent "is a limited duration property right relating to an invention, granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in exchange for public disclosure of the invention."

So, trademark and service mark each protect phrases and symbols (like a logo or a slogan) that companies use to identify themselves, or their products and services. 

"Coke adds life," "Just do it," and "I'm loving it," would all be examples of slogans, while the stylized Coke symbol, the Nike swoosh, and the golden arches would all be examples of logos. 

Patents, on the other hand, are designed to keep people from ripping off an inventor's ideas. Patents are a gold mine if you have a really unique concept, which is why you always hear the sharks on Shark Tank ask, "Do you own the patent?"

Alright, now that we have that cleared up, let's talk about what can happen when you violate someone's copyright or trademark...

You Gotta' Pay For Those Photos

One of my clients contacted me last year and asked me what he should do... 

As it happens, he'd been sent a nasty-gram from a law office representing Getty Images, and was put on notice that he was using images on his website that were owned by Getty, and without authorization or permission.

It seems that this guy had just gone online and found some cool images on someone else's site, downloaded them to his own computer, and then used them on his own website.

BAD IDEA!

Getty is notorious for hiring law firms to protect their copyright. These firms do nothing but surf the web to find people who are using stock photos without paying for them. 

Then, they send out cease and desist letters, and threaten to sue people for "stealing" the intellectual property of Getty Images.

Typically, to avoid a lawsuit and make the bad attorneys go away, they'll offer to settle the case for several hundred dollars, of which I assume the attorney takes the lion's share.

And my client? He had to pay $500 to make it go away. 

Don't Listen To Someone Else - Ask The Source!

Some time ago I was getting ready to start teaching again, and decided to design a logo. I saw a lot of schools using a particular design in their logos, and asked several of those school owners if it was protected under trademark.

"Nope. It's in the public domain."

So, silly me... I hired a bunch of graphic artists to create an original iteration of that design for my school.

A few months later, I get a certified letter in the mail. You guessed it, it was a nasty-gram telling me to stop infringing on the trademark of a certain organization of schools.

Now, could I have gone to court and defended my right to use the original artwork I'd had designed? Sure, and it would have been expensive, and I'm pretty sure they would have hired better lawyers than me.

Besides that, once I knew I was infringing on someone else's trademark I felt plain silly. And, I also knew I'd made a mistake, and I felt terrible. 

So, I told their very nice and polite attorney (really, she was) that I was ever so sorry, and I changed my logo posthaste.

Thankfully, they were nice enough to let it go at that... but it could have been a very expensive mistake.

"But It's MY Artwork!"

At this very moment, one of my coaching site members is dealing with an unpleasant situation regarding some artwork he used in his logo.

It seems he grabbed a piece of artwork from the web and integrated it into his logo, thinking that by using it in another piece of art, he'd be free and clear of copyright laws.

Nope.

Now, he has some graphic artist giving him hell over using the guy's art without permission. And here's the really sucky thing - he has that logo all over his printed materials, web designs, t-shirts, uniforms - everywhere!

It's going to cost him a bundle to stop using it. I told him he's better off negotiating a license deal with the guy. No idea what he's going to do about it, though.

The Moral Of The Story...

...is simple. Don't violate the copyright of other people, and don't assume that something is in the public domain just because someone says so.

So what's next?

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you what to do if someone infringes on YOUR copyright. So, stay tuned for that.