ok, this is my first time in legal issues... as this is first time i am investing so much! lol can any one suggest where to start and what to do? basically i am starting an site where i will give my services. i want to protect my business's name which also is my site name. I know there is nothing like that registered anywhere else... also, can i use "Copyright 2007 <BUSINESS NAME>" on my site as of now? any help would be appreciated! thanks
A copyright protects your content (articles). A trademark protects a name or logo. There are a lot of post on trademarking a name (not all names can be trademarked) if you search these forums.
1. Set up your company. 2. File for a trademark for your company's name. If your trademark is accepted, you'll be able to protect it for the class(es) you trademarked under. This is important. You could trademark (hypothetically) Greg's Stuff for one class and I could use the same name for another class. Also, the trademark isn't some magical protection. It gives YOU YOU YOU the right to protect your own trademark. You have to protect it. Which means you get to go to front the bill to go to court if the offender isn't playing nice.
Copyright is in effect the moment you create your work. So yes, you can post a copyright notice on your page. If you want the ability to sue for statutory damages, the copyright must be registered though.
To protect your business/site name, you would need to get it trade-marked. However, I believe that in order to use copyright to your business name, you would have to get it registered with the correct authourity, for example companies house in the UK. Also, I think in the UK that you don't have to actually register copyright in any form, but you instead just need to be able to prove the fact that you originally had the copyright, but then I may be slightly wrong about that... Diarmuid
You are correct that there is no need to register copyright however you do have to prove that you are the creator (or that the creator transfered the IP rights to you) which can be difficult to do. A copyright sign is unnecessary but due to popular misconceptions is advisable. You should also check the legalities on company names etc for where you will be trading and requirements for disclosure - for example in the UK the word Scotland is protected and criteria must be met to use it in your company name, likewise any site selling anything must give their full company details so if you are a sole trader it would be "Your Name t/a Your Business Name" and then your address.
Listen to marketjunction. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Registering your copyright is so far a second to setting up your company properly.
In simple words, Trademarks is just to notice that its now yours. Then it'll be your job to deal with the violators