Who Owns The Copyright To Your Small Business Logo?

Designing a small business Logo is critical step in a business' image and brand identity. An effective logo communicates the focus of the business and targets its market. The logo should be clear, easy to print on letterheads and other promotional items, and recognizable to your company.

Before finalizing your business logo, it's important to understand who will own the copyright to it because it's that person who is granted exclusive rights to the art. "Exclusive rights" means the owner of the copyright has the sole right to produce and reproduce the art. In other words, if you don't own your logo's art, you cannot take the image to print it on promotional items such as pens, pads of paper, or on advertisements.

When we discuss logos in terms of copyright, it is not the actual name of the small business that is being protected, but rather, the artistic element within the logo that is protected. In other words, two businesses could have the name 'Rock Your Soul' but each one would own the copyrights to their individual logo designs. Should another small business use your logo design, they would be infringing. A Trademark, on the other hand, could be used to protect the actual name of the Small business because it is associated with the identity of the small business.

As a general rule, the person or people who create the small business logo are the owners of the copyright. However, there are a number of exceptions where the creator of the work is not the owner of the copyright. These include: a commissioned work, a work made in the context of employment, transfer of copyrights, and licensing of copyrights.

If you hire someone to make your small business' logo, then you, as the commissioning party, own the copyrights to the logo. When you are hiring someone for the purpose of making your logo, it is definitely advisable to have a contract that states you own the copyright.

Another instance where the logo might not belong to the artist who created it is if the small business logo was created during the course of employment. In this case, if it was part of the scope of your job to create the art (i.e. you work at a design firm that creates logos for businesses), you do not own the copyrights - the company who employs you does. To add another layer to this, if the company was commissioned by the small business to make the logo, then the small business would own the copyright to the logo, as discussed above.

In some cases, the owner of the small business logo may actually choose to transfer all or some of the rights afforded by copyright law. This would require a written agreement detailing which copyrights are being transferred for the logo.

Lastly, the copyright ownership for the small business logo could be licensed out if the business chooses. This means you grant permission to someone else to use your logo for a specified cost. In this case, you would still retain all the copyrights (unlike when you transfer the rights to someone else) and can specify the terms of the license.

Disclaimer
The above information is meant as a general guide to further your copyright knowledge and does not constitute legal advice. For questions about your specific small business logo, you should consult a copyright lawyer in your country.

Contributor: Justine Shoolman
Justine Shoolman is a Founder of Copyright Creators (CC), a service inspired by the shortfalls of "poor man's copyright". CC protects copyright for life with no membership fees.
http://copyrightcreators.com/copyright-basics.php

What You Need To Know About Avoiding Content Duplication

Avoiding content duplication can be tricky, particularly if you are trying to submit articles to another website. Nevertheless, it is something that needs to be considered by ever website owner.

Search engines make every effort to display diverse results for Internet users and they frown on substantive blocks of content within or across domains--particularly when the content is exactly the same or close to it. If they think the duplication is an intentional attempt to manipulate search engine ranking, they will drop your website and any other site that shares your content down to the bottom of the list.

Avoiding duplicate content when you submit articles and making sure that you have original content on your own website is the best way to make sure you don't get penalized. Here are a few things that you will want to keep in mind:

Avoiding Content Duplication When Creating Content

The key to is to create original and useful content for your website. After all, the goal is to get your website avoiding duplicate content to rank high in the search engines. Once you have built up content for your website you can begin to submit articles to other sites, blogs, and forums for backlinks. Original articles are best for avoiding duplicate content, but you can syndicate an article with good results providing you follow two rules. The first is to make sure you have a link in the syndicated article that takes the reader back to the original article on your website. The second is to submit articles to quality sites that are respected and have consistently good rankings in the search engine results.

Avoiding Content Duplication When Outsourcing

Avoiding content duplication when you outsource your content writing can be especially difficult. The last thing you want to do is pay a writer to write multiple articles on one topic. The additional money you spend can eat up all of the profits you receive when you submit articles. To get around this, try asking your writer to create one article for your website. Then, alter the text to create a second and a third article. This way when you submit articles to other websites, you will be submitting original articles.

(Warning: When using this method of avoiding duplicate content, make sure that you either purchase full rights to the first article or change it significantly--if you don't, the writer could accuse you of plagiarism.)

Final Thoughts on Avoiding Content Duplication

Avoiding duplicate content is easier said than done. It takes time to learn the tricks associated with avoiding duplicate content and even more time put them into practice. Eventually, you may begin to wonder if you should just forget about content duplication and submit articles as they are. As tempting as this may be, it is important that you stick to the idea of avoiding article duplication. If you stay on course, your website will rank much higher in the search engines.

Contributor:
Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates www.webbusinesstoolsonline.com Cliff has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses and his continual research into further business improvements. This Blog is for discussion about web sites and web site traffic therefore your feedback is welcome.

Content Theft - 4 Simple Steps for Protecting Your Copyright

Since we're not living in a perfect world, unfair and unpleasant things happen every day. If you're an ezine articles
author, content theft is one of these unpleasant happenings. How to fight against it and how to protect your copyright?

Once you posted your article in a public place, like an website for example, someone may visit that website at any time, copy your article and post it somewhere else without respecting your copyright and reprint policy. In plain words, your article may be copied & posted under another author's name and using another resource box than yours.

Since the Internet is a huge place, can you detect when such theft happens? Did you protect yourself and do you know what actions to take in case such theft happens?

Here is a short guide to help you protect your work.

Step 1 - Post Your Article on Your Website and Register Your Copyright

Once you finished your article, post it on your website and register your copyright with a third party so that it is easier to prove later that you're the copyright owner.

A simple method of registering your copyright is to get a free account with My Free Copyright. Once you setup the account, you'll be able to record the title & text of your article, the page where the article was originally posted and the time of registering. You can also get a "Registered & Protected" badge to display on your article's page. That badge will be linked to the page from "My Free Copyright" where the details you registered are publicly visible.

Step 2 - Submit Your Article to Top Article Directories

Once you registered your copyright, submit your article to top article directories.

These submissions have three goals:

i. your work is known by the public;

ii. your website gets traffic when a reader of your article clicks on the links from your resource box;

iii. prevent a content thief to copy your article and post it himself on these article directories.

Step 3 - Setup Google Alerts

Now it's time for you to prepare for detecting a potential theft. Go to "Google Alerts" and setup 2 or 3 alerts: one for the title and the rest for key phrases from your article. In order to get relevant results, when you setup the alerts use inverted commas like this: "Here Comes the Title of Your Article".

From now on Google will take care and will alert you by email when it discovers a place on the web where the title of your article or your key phrases are posted. All you have to do is to check whether your copyright is respected or not.

Step 4 - Prepare a template for a Copyright Infringement Notice

Now prepare yourself for the case when a content theft happens. Search on Google for "Copyright Infringement Notice sample", look at some models and then write your own template, ready to be filled in if the case may be. Such notice will have to be sent to the owner of the website where your article is posted without respecting your copyright.

That's it!

To Your Success!

Adrian Jock
(Adrian Jock is the CEO of ADS MARKET Ezine Advertising Network and the publisher of Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter. To read Adrian's latest tips on ezine advertising, visit his blog Ezine Advertising Tips & Reviews at: http://www.ezineads.info )

Don't be Fooled by the Lack of a Copyright Notice

We are all familiar with copyright notices. They appear on web sites, compact discs, books, virtually everything that is protected by copyright laws.

They usually contain the letter "c" inside of a circle with wording such as "All Rights Reserved" following. Even though most everyone is familiar with these notices, there is a great deal of confusion about the purpose of a copyright notice and what the failure to include such a notice may mean to the author of a work. Much of this confusion arises from a relatively recent change in United States Copyright Law.

Under past United States Copyright Law, it was necessary to place the copyright notice on every item containing a protected work. Failure to include a copyright notice on a substantial number of published items could lead to loss of copyright protection. In effect, the work would lapse into the public domain because the failure to include a copyright notice was deemed to be a waiver of copyright protection. About 15 years ago, the United States amended the copyright laws to come into conformance with the Berne Convention on International Copyrights and the laws of many foreign countries. The end result is that failure to include a copyright notice on a published work does not any longer lead to loss of copyright protection.

Even with this change of law, there are still very good reasons to include a copyright notice when you publish a work of original authorship. including the notice asserts to the world that the work is yours and that you intend to enforce your rights. It also helps guard against a defense of innocent infringement or an arguement that the infringement was not intentional. Under the copyright laws, intentional infringement results in much higher statutory penalties.

The end result of this change in law is that it is no longer safe to assume that a work that does not include a copyright notice is not protected under the copyright laws. The copyright laws protect all original works of authorship regardless of whether they contain copyright notices or have been registered with the copyright office. There can be differences in the level of damages available if a notice is not included or a registration has not been affected. Still, misappropriation of a work of original work of authorship is still considered copyright infringements and damages would be recoverable against hte misappropriating party.

Given this fact, it is wise to assume that everything you run across on the Internet is copyright protected. You should refrain from publishing or using these items unless you obtain a license from the author. If you cannot find out who the author is so not assume that they are not out there and will not come after you if you use their material. The inconvenience and potential legal liability are too substantial and could have huge adverse impacts on your business.

About author:
Jon Fischer is the owner of the following Legal and Business Sites. Offering legal document packages for online businesses, IT companies, corporate, real estate and estate planning packages.

Visit the following sites:

http://www.e-lawresources.com
http://www.automated-incorporating.com
- Incorporation and Bylaws
http://www.technologyforms.com

Copywriting - Get Paid, Even As A New Copywriter

If you'd like to develop a great career with unlimited opportunities, look no further than copywriting. It's ideal for anyone with marketing and/ or writing experience.

Copywriting is a business writing: writing to promote and persuade. It's been called salesmanship in print, and that's precisely what it is. I'm often asked by people considering copywriting whether they have the talent for it.

Do you have the talent to become a copywriter? Talent isn't as important as application. If you enjoy writing, and you're prepared to practice your skills you can become a copywriter. I should warn you however, that when you start writing copy you'll never look at advertising in the same way again. You'll develop a critical eye for what makes good copy and what doesn't.

Let's look at the two requirements for copywriting first, and then we'll discuss how you can get started.

* You enjoy writing

It's important that you enjoy writing. In your copywriting career you'll do a lot of it, and if you enjoy it, you'll be more creative. You'll also enjoy practicing your skills.

* You're prepared to practice your skills

Copywriting is fascinating because you get feedback for your writing. That feedback is almost instant in Web copywriting.

As a new copywriter, you'll get lots of practice when you write copy to promote your own business. If you can sell yourself, you'll know how to sell others' goods and services too.

Please notice that I said "practice YOUR skills." Especially online, there's a huge tendency to turn out cookie-cutter copy. While modeling your copy on what's worked in the past will show you structure, it's fatal to use this as a blueprint for writing copy.

The best copywriters past and present are aware of famous pieces of copy, but they don't follow them slavishly. Your aim is to lead the read (or listener or viewer) to take action; use your own instincts based on research of your audience and product.

How to Advertise Yourself As a New Copywriter

When you're just starting out, you have an advantage over an established copywriter. Many clients prefer to work with someone new for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, as a new copywriter, you don't have a big stable of clients to keep happy, so you can focus on those clients you do have - you'll get the copy written quickly. This is appealing to clients who've worked with copywriters before and are told that their favorite copywriter won't be able to tackle the job for three months because he's too busy.

Secondly, new copywriters are less expensive than established pros. While it's true that you get what you pay for, many people are happy to work with someone new and save money.

As a new copywriter, you'll charge less than someone who's been writing for years. You can use these initial jobs for your a portfolio, to help you to get highly paid copywriting gigs as your experience develops.

Therefore, don't be shy about admitting that you're new - people will be glad to hire you, for precisely that reason. Go ahead and advertise yourself as a new copywriter.

Here's a fast way to get started. Write some sample copy: just write some copy either for existing products, or for fictitious products. Then get in touch with a graphics' design company. They're always looking for copywriters, and will be glad to give you a try.

About the Author:
Angela Booth's "Copywriting Master Class - Ten Weeks to Copywriting Genius" teaches you copywriting secrets of the masters. Angela Booth's ebook "Seven Days To Easy Money: Copywriting Success" takes you from novice to pro copywriter in just seven days. http://abmagic.com/Copywriting/copywriting.html