2007
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With all the emails I’ve received lately concerning copyright and trademarks I decided to do a definition on a simple form of copyrighting your clothing line name. (If it is available) Poor man’s Copyright is a form of claiming your companies name for well the poor man or otherwise a person who can’t afford the fee associated with a traditional copyright or if you are only operating in one state. I actually found out about Poor Man’s copyright because I used it when I first started my clothing company it was mentioned on some internet forum so I investigated a little more on the subject. Below I will give a step by step how-to prepare you poor man’s copyright:
- First you must gather up all proof of use of your clothing line name or whatever it is you want copyrighted. In our case we gathered up sketches and graphic renderings of our design with the use of the name Scout Union Apparel on it.
- Buy an envelope, and put the proof from the above sentence inside.? Next seal the envelope.
- Head to your local post office and prepare the envelope so that you are mailing it to yourself.
- This is the most important step without it there is really no proof of when you mailed it to yourself. Make sure that the post office stamps the envelope with the date on which you mailed it to yourself.
- Go home and wait for it to arrive. When it does keep it close and put it away in a file or folder. If you ever need to bring it up for copyright issues than you will have the secured envelope with the date on which the work was sealed and that you are in fact the owner of the stolen property.
I am not in any way saying you should get a Poor Man’s copyright, but if all else fails…it’s your choice. You can easily secure a traditional form of copyright through the US Copyright Office for around $30 really depending on what you are copyrighting.
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July 11th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Some lawyers will tell you to do the exact same thing you describe to further protect yourself and establish timeframes, but you should properly register your company, tradenames, logos , icons, so you don’t have to resort to using using “poormans copyright”. If someone thinks a name is available, they will go ahead and try and register it. If that happens , it is your responsibility to defend it, and that will end up costing you.
In todays “cyber squatting” age, you should also investigate domain names and availability too. I know people sitting on hundreds of 1-800 phone numbers and 1-800-domain names and they make money by selling or leasing back to you. Pretty slimey, but legal non the less.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:03 am
If you research this method specifically on the official US government website
“I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?
The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration. ”
the link to this information is here…
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#poorman
so I would be weary of this method… however i am no lawyer, just passing on information, good luck