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December 11th, 2009
This is handy: A primer on intellectual property.
I’ve been asked a number of times if I actually trademark any of my names/logos, etc, or if the “™” is just decorative. The answer is “no and no but yes”. Trademark can be established through regular and public use. Registering your trademark certainly helps, but isn’t required. For me, slapping a ™ on my work simply indicates my intent to protect my assets.
However, sometimes its just for show. (see: IOWA™, Mars Estates©, Super Analytics©, etc). I’m fascinated by the ability of a glyph to transform the viewer’s interpretation of the image. The Super Analytics funnel, for instance, goes from a pretty illustration to a savvy, mysterious company simply through inclusion of about 20×20px worth of pixels. The real potential for exploration comes from replacing the established ™ © ® with similar, nonsense glyphs. Visual association yields the same results without any of the actual, legal baggage (like here).
December 11, 2009, 11:55 am
I think maybe you’re confusing trademark and copyright. I believe copyright can be established through use, while trademark must be registered (e.g., you may be able to claim copyright of an arrangement of some typefaces into a logo, but claiming trademark on the same logo might get you in trouble with some foundries – depending on the license.). I could definitely be wrong here, but that was my understanding. Then again, I’m no lawyer.
December 11, 2009, 1:04 pm
Ryan, trademarks can definitely be established through common use. The mark itself “™” is specifically for unregistered trademarks, as opposed to ®, which means that it has been registered.
March 12, 2010, 6:24 pm
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