How do I know if something is copyrighted, such as a name or word? What should I know about copyright law?

As the other answers already noted, neither names nor words can be copyrighted. A copyright protects art displays, performances and written works (this extends to modern technology such as websites, illustrations, television and film).

Copyright in Vietnam 

The protection of words, marks and names is done with registered trademarks. Just like the official copyright symbol is a “C” inside a circle, the registered trademark symbol is the letter “R” inside of a circle. The TM for trademark and SM for service mark are not recognized by the patent trademarks and copyright office. Some states may recognize them, but they are the weakest form of protection.

You should also know that you are not prohibited from using trademark names in your own works, but you must not represent yourself as the trademark holder or imply that your product is the trademarked product. This is why restaurants are so quick to note that they serve Coke or Pepsi products if you order a brand name drink which they do not serve. (As an ironic aside. The concession for Hartsfield Atlanta Airport is held by PepsiCo, in Coca-Cola’s home city.)

There is a lot more to know about trademarks and copyrights. If you are a graphic artist, the handbooks from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) are excellent references on this topic. I’m certain there are similar resources for writers, other artists and businesses. My advice is to find a good reference and to read it very very carefully and after you have read the basics, if there is anything that you don’t understand or that still puzzles you about your project, consult an intellectual property attorney before you make a very costly mistake.

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What is copyright and plagiarism, and how does the law/system regarding this work?

Copyrightis the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, or to make derivative works, and to authorize others to do the same. Copyright infringement is illegal in most countries.

The details copyright infringement laws vary from country to country, but in the United States, the legal penalties for copyright infringement that the infringer pays the actual dollar amount of damages and profits. If the work was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, the law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 in statutory damages for each work infringed, as well as the infringer paying for all attorneys fees and court costs.

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. Plagiarism is usually considered an ethical breech of conduct rather than a criminal or civil offense, unless one also commits copyright infringement when plagiarizing.

However, it is possible to plagiarize someone without infringing their copyright, if that person gives you permission to copy their work and publish it under your own name. It is also possible to infringe someone’s copyright without committing plagiarism by copying someone else’s work without their permission but crediting them as the creator of that work.

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How do I know if something is copyrighted, such as a name or word? What should I know about copyright law?

Copyright is the exclusive legal right, given to a creator to copy, print, publish, perform, film, record, or make derivative works of their creative work, and to authorize others to do the same. This prevents other people from using someone else’s creative work (novel, poem, play, song, photograph, painting, movie, software) without compensating them for the creator’s effort.

Copyright in Vietnam

The United States and some other countries do recognize cases where you can use someone else’s copyrighted work without their permission for limited purposes. This is Fair use, permitting you to use a minimal portion of their work for such transformational purposes as criticism, news, education, research, and parody, such that you are not harming the market for the original work. An example of Fair Use is showing a short clip of a movie during a movie review, or showing a photograph of a painting in a news report about the painting being auctioned for a record amount.

Note that words, names, and titles are not protected by copyright. After all, it would not be to anyone’s benefit if you were not legally allowed to say someone else’s name. write down a word they made up, or display the title of a book without their creator’s permission.

However, words, names and short phrases (as well as logos) can be protected as trademarks used to identify commercial products and services — such as “McDonald’s” restaurants and “Nike” shoes — and you cannot use someone else’s trademark for a competitive product or service. This is to prevent consumers from being confused about who actually made that product or performs that service. You can find out whether someone has registered a word, phrase or logo as a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office through this government website: Search trademark database. However, to be safe, you should have a trademark attorney search for you, as some people may be using a trademark without registering it with the USPTO.

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ANT Lawyers Joined with International Law Firms in Hong Kong on Dec 7th, 2018

In order to meet the legal demand arising from oversea investors, ANT Lawyers representative, Managing Partner Mr Tuan Nguyen has signed cooperation agreement with other international law firms in Hong Kong on Dec 7th, 2018 to provide legal support and service across numerous countries.

The lawyers are from Hong Kong SAR, the United Kingdom, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Macau, China (Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu) have met up and discussed cooperation plan. The cooperation is expected create a platform for communication and cooperation to provide legal support and services to global enterprises, optimizing the business environment, promoting interconnection, investment and trade cooperation. At the formal event, the eleven representatives of the participated international law firm signed the Memorandum of Understanding, and promised to strengthen legal cooperation and exchanges in policy analysis, legal research, and legal services to provide comprehensive services for investors.

The cooperation signing ceremony was participated by the representatives of Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”) and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the governors, members and other professionals to witness this important moment. Ms. Tan Huizhu – Deputy Director of the Basic Law Committee of the HKSAR; GBM, GBS, JP and Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress – Mr. Tan Yaozong; GBM, GBS, JP and Vice Minister Vice Minister of Legal Department of Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR – Mr. Liu Chunhua attended the ceremony as guest.

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How do you go about getting a patent and trademark?

A trademark is registered at the Trademark Office in the country(ies) you want are currently doing business in or selling product in. You have to already be using that name or logo in “trade”, and then you can register it.

 Trademark Lawyers in Vietnam

While it is possible to do this yourself, it really is best done through a lawyer who has experience in this. It is not unusual for lawyers to just offer a flat rate for the process, on a per-country basis.

Patents are another thing altogether. They are ridiculously difficult to file and to respond to all of the questions and concerns that come back from the Patent Office before your application is approved. For that matter, your application has to have engineering diagrams and descriptions of sufficient detail that someone else in your field would be able to build a prototype of your design.

You need a specialist lawyer, a patent attorney. Unless you actually are a patent lawyer, there is no way you would be able to succeed at getting a patent approved doing this by yourself.

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How much is a trademark and how does it work?

The trademark symbol ™ can be used by anyone to identify a word, words, or symbol used to identify their business, product or services. There is no requirement to use the ™ symbol and their use has no legal significance, but it is wise to do so. When you use the ™ you notify the public of your claim of branding rights in a particular mark and in turn dissuade others from adopting the same or similar mark for the same or similar products or services. This staves off unwitting trademark infringement.

Register trademark in Vietnam

However, the registered trademark symbol ® may only be used by the owner of a mark following registration with the relevant national authority, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and you can find the latest fee information here: View Fee Schedule: Trademark Fee Information.

Here are some reasons the USPTO gives for registering your trademark:

constructive notice to the public of the registrant's claim of ownership of the mark;

a legal presumption of the registrant's ownership of the mark and the registrant's exclusive right to use the mark nationwide on or in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the registration;

the ability to bring an action concerning the mark in federal court;

the use of the U.S registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries; and

the ability to file the U.S. registration with the U.S. Customs Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods.

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What are the risks of using a trademarked brand name in a domain name?

Having a trademark brand in your domain name is a risk. If the domain was registered before the trademark was, then your registrar may stand behind you and will not immediately transfer the domain to the company which is complaining about trademark infringement. In this case, you may ask for a monetary compensation before transferring domain ownership, though you should have a lawyer look at your case.

However, if your domain name was registered more recently than the trademark registration date, then the company holding the trademark may ask your domain registrar to transfer the domain ownership to them. The registrar will most likely comply, looking to avoid complications. In western countries, trademark infringement is a very serious legal violation.

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How can you buy someone else's trademark?

Mr. Sivochek’s answer is correct and I have little to add. You cannot buy just the trademark registration in the U.S.; you must by the whole business and goodwill associated with the mark that is registered. Naturally, that business must still be functioning and the mark still in use in U.S. Commerce as well. Anything less, and you are buying just the piece of paper that comprises the registration certificate and therefore little, if anything, should be paid for that.

Register trademark in Vietnam

I suppose that if the business is not operating any longer and a valid US registration exists that you want to acquire or would register yourself (i.e. it recites goods/services that appropriately describes your business), that registration could have some “nuisance value” in terms of being desirable just to avoid a likelihood of confusion refusal by the USPTO in your application. So if you were to “buy” a registration certificate like that for a mark that may not be in use, label the transaction accordingly and pay the appropriate corresponding amount. In other words, don’t buy the “mark” or trademark right that is not affixed to an ongoing business because that could be a transfer of a mark “en grosse” which would invalidate the mark and the registration.

If you don’t follow this, or if you think it is complicated, I would say that it is and you should work with a U.S. trademark attorney on this.

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How do you trademark a word that you made up?

The requirements to register a trademark are:

That the mark be used to describe a service, product, business. That it be used as a brand.

That the item being named by the trademark is in business or currently available to purchase. That is, that it is currently used “in trade”.

Register trademark in Vietnam

That your application describe the product or business sufficiently that the trademark office can assign it to a specific class of business (e.g. apparel). Trademarks only limit use by other businesses within that class of business. Apple Plumbing does not have to worry about being sued by Apple, who are in the class of electronic goods and computer software (among others).

I suspect what you are really trying to do is prevent anyone else from using this word that you made up. A word that has a specific definition in English and an intended use when communicating.

Trademark (and copyright, for that matter) are not at all interested in limiting the ability of people to communicate. Words, names, punctuation, symbols/letters/numbers are all without protection, free for anyone to use in normal communication. The trademark of “Apple” clearly doesn’t prohibit me from discussing the fruit that makes a delicious pie or strudel. It only prohibits me from using it to describe my own product or business which competes with Apple’s existing products or business.

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Why do copyrights last so long?

I strongly recommend that interested parties read this full article on Wikipedia covering copyright law and its evolution: History of copyright law

The good old House of Lords in England made the call in the mid 1700's that both Public Domain and statue-defined Copyright existed. France and the US were also grappling with how to promote, protect and ultimately share with the public any works. Remember, before this only a specific publisher in London would forever be the one with the right to print Shakespeare; a right under attack by devilish Scottish printers (how dare they!)

Now that the terms were subject to legislation, a moderate term of 14 years (with an extension of 14 more possible if the author was still alive) secured a limited monopoly that was intended to hold the author through to the end of his days and secure a reasonable inheritance for one's children. Not at all unexpected in societies that had Land Owners who derived profit by renting their land to use by farmers, workers or industry. (Read some Adam Smith if you want to hear more about how Rent is a fundamental element in economic understanding at the time.)

What is meant by copyright? 

Are eBooks protected bycopyright?

A hundred years later and we have internationalization of the scheme being defined in treaty. In the Berne Convention, signatories were all agreeing to Lifetime-plus-fifty-years as the new minimum term.

How did we get that jump? Again, the publishers constantly push things back toward their original conception of perpetual copyright. These expansions always cite the author's need, but benefit the business to an equal or greater amount. And terms have been pushed farther and farther out over the decades. Partially because it turns out there is big business in making sequels and derivative works.

Literature has turned from being primarily a means of disseminating information and turned into an entertainment venue where the public is voracious for new-but-familiar content. (Amusingly, this does not hold true for music, which falls completely out of public favor in about 40-50 years. Yet the RIAA is one of the fiercest fighters of copyright protections.)

Content publishers now fear that someone will make a better version of James Bond's Casino Royale if they are given the chance to make their own derivatives. And they are probably right. But that's not the best justification for 110-year-long copyright terms just so we can protect Mickey Mouse's first movie.

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