Legal Question in Business Law in Colorado

Re: Which form to use?

Copyrights are used to protect literary, artistic, and musical works. Trademarks protect brand names or designs which are applied to products or services. From your question, it appears that a trademark is what you need. At the state level, a trademark can be protected under Colorado law by registering it with the Colorado secretary of state. Forms can be found at www.sos.state.co.us. Registering a trademark at the state level is not the same thing as registering a trademark at the federal level with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If your products are sold across state lines (or you hope they will be) federal trademark registration may be advisable. Information on registering a federal trademark can be found at www.uspto.gov. While it is possible to obtain a federal trademark without counsel, having an attorney can make this process more manageable and less time consuming. If you have written documents in connection with your candle business, you can obtain basic copyright protection simply by stating that such original writings are under copyright. For example, �� 2005 Candle Maker.�