Whenever you create intellectual property such
as a book, a song, art, film or software, you should register it with the
United States Copyright Office. You can
get the forms and everything that you need when you go online.
When you register your application with the copyright
office, you should register it under its name.
You can give your product a trade name and send in the file of the
software to the copyright office. You
will pay a fee, but be given copyright protection after you file.
The reason that you need copyright protection is
because there are people out there who will be glad to take credit for your
work. Even if they have not done the
work at all, they will steal the application that you worked so hard on and use
it to make a profit. This is called
copyright infringement. It is a
punishable act and is illegal. You can
sue in civil court for such an action and the person can also be liable for
criminal damages if he or she knowingly stole your property. While criminal damages are rare, there are
hundreds of thousands of copyright infringement lawsuits going on right
now.
It is well worth the money to protect your application
from copyright infringement. You need to
understand that an idea on its own cannot be copyrighted. It has to be the actual product that is
copyrighted. A title cannot be copyrighted,
either. Many people who create
applications for I-Phone 3G will give it a whimsical name that they have
trademarked, along with the logo.
A copyright will protect your software from being
stolen and used for profit by unscrupulous people, or at least discourage them
from doing so. A copyright will only
protect the software, however, and not your logo or name. For that, you will want to get a trademark.
Before you build your software, you should have a name
in your head as well as a logo design that you want to use. There are plenty of places where you can go
to get a logo designed for you. There
are custom logo design companies that will design for you a custom designed
logo. Logo Tournament is one site that
actually allows graphic designers to compete for giving you the winning logo
design.
Once you have your trademark and your original name,
you can get them trademark protection at the US Copyright Office trademark
division. This entails just putting the
matter to paper and then sending it in with the application and the fee. You will have trademark protection for your
logo right away.
Should you go through the expense of trade marking and
copyrighting your product? Just think,
if the software is a big hit and becomes one of the most innovative software
applications for I-Phone online, there will be many people looking for a way to
cash in on your good fortune. They can
discover if you have trademark and copyright protection right online and then
start to use it for their own good.
Anytime you create intellectual property, you need to
make sure that it is copyrighted.
Whenever you create a logo or a name for your application you should
have it trademarked. You can use the
trademark and logo as a way to build your brand for your application.
The fees associated with copyright protection and
trademark protection are well worth the price when you think about what you get
in return. You have the peace of mind
knowing that your intellectual property is protected and that no one can steal
it or use it without your permission.
Copyrighting your software or trade marking your logo
and name is not difficult to do at all.
You do not need to engage an attorney for this. The forms as well as instructions are readily
available at the United States Copyright Office. Read more on how to make money with IPhone Applications.
Other Pages on making money with IPhone: Application Distribution Marketing Building a Brand Creating Custom Applications Doing Homework
How to Create IPhone Applications IPhone Applications Making Money with Ads
Software Copyrights Using an Apple Account Working with a Partner 3G
