Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Copyrighting my business

Businesses can't be copyrighted. Only written works, films, documents, musical compositions, photographs, recordings, works of visual art or arcitecture and the like can be copyrighted.

You can copyright documents you created as part of your business, even if they are only for internal use. They are automatically copyrighted upon creation, but you may want to register them in case someone else tries to dispute your authorship later.

Depending upon what it is you want to do, you may be able to use other forms of intellectual property protection instead of - or in addition to - copyright. You may be able to obtain trademark protection for your business name and/or logo, for example. You may be able to patent your business method, your products and/or any equipment you invented for your own use. There may also be other ways to legally protect your interests, but your question does not provide enough information to say what those interests are let alone how they might be protected.

Re: Copyrighting my business

You cannot, per se, copyright a business. You can establish a trademark in the name however. That requires first that you use the name in public. You can start that process by filing a fictitious business name statement. You should do some research first, to see if anyone else is using the business name you desire and that it is not the same type of business you will start. For instance, you can't start a soda company and call it Coke.

Re: Copyrighting my business

You can't copyright a business. Copyrights are for original works of artistic creation, such as books, paintings and musical compositions.

Neither can you patent a business. There are two main forms of intellectual-property protection available to businesses as such: trademark and trade secret.

You can trademark a business name and/or logo by making application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. There are some rules that need to be observed. Check the USPTO Web site at www.uspto.gov. Trademark protection keeps others from using your name or logo for the same or similar goods or services.

If your intent is to protect a business idea, the field of trade secret law deserves your attention. While you can't prevent others from using your ideas, if they think them up independently or if they copy what you're openly doing, if you have genuinely secret information such as customer lists, formulas and recepies, processes, etc., you can expect others you entrust with these secrets (such as employees) not to misappropriate them. Having a confidentiality agreement is helpful. Keep in mind that if the secret leaks out through your fault, you'll lose whatever protection you once had. Misappropriation of trade secrets can be enforced through lawsuit, usually a civil suit for damages, but if the misappropriation is serious and blatant, it can perhaps be prosecuted as a theft crime.

Finally, I should add that incorporating a business gives some minimal protection against others using exactly the same name.

Re: Copyrighting my business

1. There are no forms, other than what attorneys create for themselves in their business.

2. As you've been told, businesses aren't copyrighted; specific documents and items are.

3. To protect your business, which is what you are trying to do, you need to incorporate and trademark it and your unique items, promote and market it successfully.

4. For some of those things, you will probably need an attorney.

If you are interested, contact me to discuss what can be done at reasonable cost.

Re: Copyrighting my business

Well, I don't think you can copyright that. Copyright applies to unique writings. Perhaps what you want to do is protect trade secret information that is not readily available to the public. If so, I can be of assistance.