Copyright is there to protect your original creative works. You can’t copyright an idea. You can copyright things like literary work, dramatic works, musical and artistic work as long as they are in a tangible form.

And what do I mean by tangible form? Well, things like books, film recordings, websites, software, photography, paintings, or graphic design elements like business cards or brochures. Having the copyright then gives you the exclusive rights to perform, distribute, make copies of or even make adaptations of your original creative work.

In UK, there is no requirement to register your copyright. It just happens automatically as soon as the work is created.  Protection on copyright generally last for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. Once you have created your work and the copyright is assigned, you then have permission to use that little copyright symbol, the little C inside the circle, along with the year that the work was created.

However, there is no requirement to use that little C symbol, the copyright still remains with you at all times. So let’s move on to registered marks. There are two types of registered marks, and both of these can be used to protect the sale of products or services for a business.

The first is the trademark, which is used to protect goods or products. And the second is a service mark which you would use to protect services that you provide. Generally though, people tend to use the term trademark to cover both a trademark and a service mark. I will be using the term registered mark which covers both. Examples of things that can be covered by a registered mark would be a company name, a slogan, a sound, a colour and a logo. Once you have that registered mark, you have the exclusive rights to use that mark with your product or service. It allows you to stop other companies, businesses or organisations from using a similar mark to promote or sell a similar product or service. What you can’t do is you can’t prevent someone from using a similar mark if they’re using it to promote or sell a dissimilar product or service.

Let’s look at this example of two logos, one for Sun Microsystems and the other for Columbia Sportswear. Now visually, these two logos are very similar, especially if they were both in black, for example, and you just had a quick glance at the logos. The reason that both of these similar logos can exist and be registered as marks is that they’re two completely different industries. Sun Microsystems is in software and computing and Columbia is in sportswear, two very different industries.

Now however, let’s say Sun Microsystems were in the sportswear business as well, then we would have an issue because they would both have similar marks selling or trading similar products, this can happen. So, what would happen here is that the company that had registered their mark first would be able to prevent the second company from registering the mark which is similar to theirs and in a similar industry. In its simplest form, registered marks are there to help the consumer differentiate between brands and the products and services that they sell. If when you try to register a new mark, the intellectual property office will look at existing marks and if they feel that by registering your mark, this may cause confusion for the consumer when they are looking to buy a product or service from someone who is in the same industry as you, they will deny you that registration. Once you have registered your mark though, you can use the little R symbol inside the circle next to your logo or your brand name. Unlike copyright, registered marks can last indefinitely, but they do have to be renewed every 10 years. One thing that you cannot do is you cannot register a mark and sit it on a shelf for use at a later date. For a registered mark to be viable, it must be in constant use.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE SAME, DO LET ME KNOW.

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The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.

If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems at secondinnings.hr@gmail.com

In the year 2021, we wrote about 1000 Inspirational Women In India, in the year 2022, we would be featuring 5000 Start Up Stories.