Trademarking

[Rich Kressly]

OK gang. Hopefully I can offer some insight. Some points of clarification are needed from a legal standpoint. First of all trademarks and copyrights are different entities. Copyrights are for real and intellectual property while trademarks are primarily for logos and other such visuals. Our team has placed a "TM" behind the Cybersonics logo. This is not the same as trying to copyright the word "Cybersonics". We don't want to own the word, we just want our logo to be ours and recognized as such. I sugggest you search online for copyright and trademark laws for more details, but in a nutshell this is what my previous paralegal education has taught me:

Trademarks - Applying for a trademark can be a long, tedious, and expensive venture. If you apply for and receive a logo trademark, that legally enables you to use the registered trademark (the encircled r) and protection under all trademark law. Without any application you can use a "TM", "tm" or the word "trademark" legally and still be protected under trademark law. The only thing such a group can't use is the registered trademark insignia. If someone else steals your logo and uses it as theirs, you can still win a case as long as you can prove first use of that logo and that it originated with you. Basically, if you mail the logo in a sealed envelope to yourself or archive a CD, time and date stamped then you are doing something to protect yourself. To us, it didn't seem practical for a FIRST team to spend hundreds of dollars (how much more 80:20 can you buy with that fee?) to register a trademark when we can go ahead and use the "TM" to protect ourselves. If we were a for profit business things would be different, but we are not.

Copyright - Here, I would think most teams might think of wanting to protect website content, etc this way. Basically copyright laws are more complex and, depending on the situation, have expiration dates (that's how Michael Jackson was able to buy the rights to the Beatles song "Revolution" and then sell them to Nike for a commercial). I suggest online searching, view websites, and legal advice in this area if you want to go that way. Again there are things you can do for free without using the official copyright "c" to protect yourself. Website disclaimers about content are common and require no formal registration to be protected. And even if you do claim all content as yours you can still give permission for others to use it. Just check out www.segway.com and look for their "press kit". Their logo is trademarked, but they have designated logos for download and use by the media.

On a general note it is my belief the FIRST community should not go out of its way to legally restrict too much sharing as sharing is what has built the huge success. I would never want to see in headlines "team xyz sues team pdq" for copyright, trademark, or even patent infringement. This type of atmosphere would stifle one of the most progressive movements in our society. ON THE OTHER HAND, I believe a team should do everything it can to brand and protect their "name" and what they stand for so they become highly visable a well recognized.

Hope this info. was of some help.