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Old 01-30-2021, 10:26 AM
 
10,494 posts, read 6,939,675 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by steiconi View Post
Here's a pertinent question to ask: how much does it cost to defend your copyright?
Back in the 1980s, the answer was "over $10,000." I assume the loser of the lawsuit pays legal costs for both sides.

I don't know how much it would cost now, but back then I decided not to focus on copyright because I couldn't afford to lose. I also decided not to infringe on other's copyright. This plan has worked out well.

There is literally no way to answer that question. It really depends on how big the stakes are, how determined they are, and how lawyered-up they are.



When I sued someone for trademark violation in the late 90s, they settled out of court. My legal bill was $20,000.
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Old 02-04-2021, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Ontario, Canada
31,374 posts, read 20,018,478 times
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Best way to copyright a Literary Work ??

Sell the mss to a commercial publisher and let them do it for you.
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Old 02-04-2021, 12:31 PM
 
Location: Howard County, Maryland
16,347 posts, read 10,357,696 times
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When one self-publishes on Kindle Direct Publishing (either hard copy or electronic copy), the publication date (i.e. the date that the work became available on Amazon) is shown on your work's page. I'm no expert, but I would think that this would be a good way to prove that you wrote it, if no one else can prove a date earlier than that for the work in question.
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Old 02-04-2021, 12:52 PM
 
Location: close to home
6,203 posts, read 3,508,192 times
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As someone who receives royalties, you most definitely have to copyright a work to protect your legal rights. Just signing your name and dating something doesn't do that.

https://www.copyright.gov/
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Old 02-05-2021, 01:00 PM
 
Location: Old Mother Idaho
29,177 posts, read 22,174,802 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens View Post
Your copywrite is automatic. However you need to prove you wrote it and that you wrote it first. The safest way to do that is to register your work with the copyright office. However you can also put a draft in registered mail to yourself and never open it when it arrives. That will be some proof of the date you wrote it.
This is true.
Both will protect you as the author, but registration becomes part of the public record and makes you the official author of your work. That is enough to stop a frivolous lawsuit.

But you could be forced to go to court to defend your authorship if you don't register your copy right. The self-addressed envelope will be good evidence, but yohe u will still end up paying out a lot of money and spending a lot of time in court.
Registration stops that expense and waste of time. The only successful offense against registration is earlier registration by the plaintiff.
There are jerks out there who hunt daily for un-registered logos, works, and trade names.

If they can register them first, a company could be forced to pay millions for a trade name that the company invented.
Exxon is a notable example.
When Standard Oil decided to drop its registered trade names 'Standard' and 'Esso', because they wanted to combine the brands under one name, they hired a major advertising company to come up with a new name, logo, and ad campaign.
Millions were invested in research, as the new name had to be a meaningless word all over the world. Standard Oil wanted no inadvertent bad connotations with their new name.
Exxon was chosen. It was an invented word, and no known language in the world had it. The two Xs made it visually memorable, and harkened back to the two Ss in 'Esso'.

A perfect choice. After 2 years in development, the new brand name was proudly announced to the media.
...and some guy in New Jersey caught the bus to New York City, where he did a quick check at the district records office there.
He discovered that somehow, the agency had forgotten to copy right all the work they did, so he copy righted it all, using the backs of registration forms to write on.
The work took about 30 minutes and cost him around $200 to copy right it all. And he was paid over $2.5 million just to get him off Standard Oil's back shortly afterward.

That happens to literature too.

New authors aren't sued very often, but once an author becomes famous, it's the stuff that was written back in the early days that's used the most in lawsuits.
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Old 02-05-2021, 03:49 PM
 
Location: Dessert
10,830 posts, read 7,215,351 times
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I believe Business names and logos are covered by trademark law, which requires registration.

Copyright is automatic upon publication.
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