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In the present day’s competitive commerce environment, the potential worth of a business relies not only in its material assets but depends largely on its capacity to develop and benefit from sound new ideas and creativity. The essential creative elements of a business including sales brochures and fliers, advertisements, instruction guides, architectural and engineering diagrams, photographs, images, paintings, graphics, website designs, computer software, music, and audio recordings can all be protected under copyright law.

The copyright protection under the existing law subsists to a work whether or not the owner of the copyright registers the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. While registration of a work is not a requirement, it is a precondition prior to initiating an infringement action. Furthermore, a copyright that was registered within three months of the work’s initial publication will enable the owner to claim legal damages and lawyer fees in an infringement lawsuit. It is advisable to register any work that is deemed to be of value as copyright registration is inexpensive.

Small businesses and individual entrepreneurs frequently ignore the significance of appropriately securing rights to their business and product names when establishing their businesses. In these early stages of selecting and securing names, mistakes regrettably can end up being extremely costly. It is imperative to take on a comprehensive trademark search and obtain a clearance for the mark prior to introduction of the product or service in the marketplace. Unfortunately, businesses invest substantial amount of time and money endorsing a new product or service just to have their marketing endeavor ineffective as their mark was by now in use by a different company.

In contrast to common belief, a registered trade name is not a registered trademark.  A trade name is not infringing on another trademark if the trade name is to be registered with the Secretary of State. In order to ensure that a trade name is not violating the rights of others a trademark clearance search should be conducted and the mark should be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office so as to obtain nationwide trademark security.

To facilitate protection of different aspects of the same product both trademarks and copyrights can be used in conjunction.  A copyright may secure the creative expression of an image or logo utilized by a business to distinguish its goods or services whereas a trademark may secure the image or logo from application by others in a way possible to confuse consumers in the marketplace.