How to Copyright a Name

How to Copyright a Name1 How to Copyright a Name If you think about a unique name and you want nobody else to use it, then the first thing you think about is about copyrighting it. However you must remember that it is difficult to get a copyright for a name thought it isn’t really impossible to legally protect a name. You must file an application with the Patent & Trademark Office to get a copyright for your name. Also you can protect logos that carry names in them.

You must do some research on copyrights, patents and trademarks to understand the difference between each of these legal terms. While you patent a product or an invention, you get a trademark for a commercial product and you get a copyright for some intellectual property that protects some kind of authorship. You can apply for copyright for a name only when you use it for running a business or some kind of trade. Though it is not essential you can speak to an attorney who specializes in the area of patents and trademarks to help you out with copyright the name you want. You must be patient with copyrighting your name as it may take some time and effort from your end.

Steps to copyright a name:

You must visit the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to learn more about copyrights. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers helps to copyright website names.
To find out whether the name you want to copyright is already protected by somebody else you must look that out in the copyright and trademark database. There is the Trademark Electronic Search System that can help you search with ease. If you do not do this, you may end up wasting both time and money.
After the search either you may find the name to be unique and ready to be copyrighted or it is already available in the database. You can try some variations to the name or do a fresh new search. This way you can find out whether you get a name that is copyrighted or not.
You can also try websites like Nameboy.com or Name Generator to look for a unique name.
After you ensure that your name is unique and not copyrighted you can file and application online. You must use the Trademark Electronic Application System to apply. Once your application is checked and the name you chose gets a green signal, you can pay the amount required to copyright and save the serial number with you to use it when you need to produce your copyright number.
The approval or rejection of the copyright is finally decided by the US trademark office. It may take a while before you actually get that. So wait patiently.

This way you can verify the name you like and copyright it. Copyrighting is pretty essential when you do not want anyone to steal your ideas or concepts soothe faster you think about taking a copyright is better. Because if you do not hurry, somebody else might get it before you.