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FIB - Scams 101 - Ye Olde Archives
Posted By: Jim In Response To: Trademarks and copyrights and lawsuits, oh my! (Mel. White)
Wednesday, 30 March 2005, at 5:20 a.m.
This just an FYI about a technical clarification between copyright and trademark.
You can NOT copyright a name or certain words or phrases.
Trademarks are used to claim ownership of a name. However, there are limitations on what you can trademark.
Disney is a trademark. You can use the name when referring to the company, but it should carry the trademark symbol and possibly (recommended) a disclaimer that you are not associated with them.
However, "content" such as a book, or pictures/photos, music, etc. can be copyrighted.
Hence, the pictures of Disney characters are copyrighted and can only be used "with consent."
If you post pictures of Disney characters on your website without consent, you might hear from them.
Keep in mind, you are no longer are required to display a copyright notice as a claim to a copyright, although it is highly recommended. In other words, just because you don't see a copyright notice, don't assume that it's public domain.
> That depends on how you handle it and how you identify their copyrights.
> Now... names aren't copyrightable. There are lots of people who have the
> last name of Disney and they could (legitimately) have a travel site. You
> could have a travel agent who sets up Disney tours... and this would be
> legal.
> What is NOT legal is to use that and pretend up front to be Disney.
> "Disney" isn't copyrighted, but the word, "Disney"
> written in that special script font (you know the one) in a particular
> shade of gold is part of their trademark. If you put THAT
> "Disney" word on your site and pretend it's you, you'll have
> lawyers on you faster than ants on a dead armadillo.
> Furthermore, when you put up that fan site, you need to put a TM after
> Disney (or whomever) and make sure that you have downloaded either
> permitted art FROM THEIR SITE ONLY or have drawn your own interpretation
> (it's okay to draw Goofy or Donald as long as you say they are copyright
> the Disney corporation and you're not offering them for sale or download.)
> A disclaimer should be put that the characters, etc (anything you use
> that's Disney's) is trademarked or copyrighted by Disney and put a link to
> their site.
> This really is just common courtesy... but it's the kind of common
> courtesy that will keep you out of huge legal troubles.
> For the gazillion page scoop on this, go straight to the horse's mouth:
> www.copyright.gov/
> For the Plain English, Readers Digest version, you can try the FAQ that
> Glen Wooten and I wrote for Usenet:
> http://www.rexx.com/~jaguar/copyright.html
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