Trademark and Copyright

RLeahey14 · Post by **RLeahey14** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

Alright my last band lost our name due to some copyright laws and we didn't even really play shows, they came after us cuz our myspace and some covers i recorded

We now have reformed and have a couple of our own originals, I was hoping someone on here could give me some advice on getting our stuff, especially our name and music copyrighted. Ive been reading up but nothing is really definitive

Any help on the matter, like what your band did and stuff like that, I heard that state laws are different from country laws and are different from international laws so im really confused on the subject

I just dont want to go down the road and have to change our name or hear some of my music from another band claiming they wrote it... which could be a real problem with the amount of myspace and other free hosting sites for music...

any help is appreciated, thanks

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

The easiest and cheapest way is to write it down on a post card and mail it to yourself. The postmark acts as the official date.

nighthawk · Post by **nighthawk** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

copy writing a song is fairly easy. fill out the form send in the music, lyrics and money and done for the most part. the same fees apply for one song or a compilation of songs. trademarking a band name is what sucks. we started the process about a year or so ago and it still is not finalized. you have to start by finding out if it is available then apply for this then apply for that as well as pay a decent sum. ours is currently in the final stages of being put into the library of congress but it took a year to get this far. be real sure you want to take it that far cause if you do all the band members own a piece of it. if you change members then you can imaging what will come of it. a short time ago you could call them and do a lot of it but not anymore. it is all by mail. at least that i know of. one thing to know is that once the trademark is done it is good for 70years past the time the last person dies. on another note i do not know if there are different levels of trademarking. this is about all the info i know personally. my drummer has been the one dealing with it cause she has all the help she needs up in boston.

nighthawk · Post by **nighthawk** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

oh yea the mail thing kinda works but if anything ever comes up as some sort of issue with it. you will have all kinds of court over it. the fee for copy writing is i believe 40$ for one song or the whole album. it is worth it in my book.

RLeahey14 · Post by **RLeahey14** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

thanks man, are there any links you could give me on where to send the songwriting stuff to, and do you know if i could get the band name trademarked just in my name... cuz ive been the only consistent member and im the only songwriter so it pretty much screws me as with everyone owning the name of the band, cuz doesnt dave mustaine have sole ownership of megadeth, thats kind of the thing im looking for, thanks for the help i appreciate if you can point me in the right direction that would be awesome

nighthawk · Post by **nighthawk** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

here are some copyrite links that i found.

http://www.afm.org/public/musicbiz/music_copyright.php

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/ ... alties.htm

http://www.musicbusinessstore.com/mbc82.html

RLeahey14 · Post by **RLeahey14** » Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

thanks again man ill check those out

Post by **Ron** » Tuesday Nov 06, 2007

Copyrights only affect works of art, not band names and any piece of art is covered automatically when it is finished. The only reason to register a copyright is to ensure that you aren't forced into litigation over a song's ownership.

To cover your band name you need a trademark, not a copyright. Trademarks can be costly. The last time I looked into getting one for a software project the total for filing fees and attorney costs was around $4000.00.

Hawk · Post by **Hawk** » Tuesday Nov 06, 2007

"Nevermoure" went through that with the band "Nevermore". Which is why they had to change their name.

I think it cost them around $2,500 to change their name to "Vs. the Earth" and Trademark it.

Banned · Post by **Banned** » Sunday Nov 25, 2007

Ron wrote:Copyrights only affect works of art, not band names and any piece of art is covered automatically when it is finished. The only reason to register a copyright is to ensure that you aren't forced into litigation over a song's ownership.

To cover your band name you need a trademark, not a copyright. Trademarks can be costly. The last time I looked into getting one for a software project the total for filing fees and attorney costs was around $4000.00.

This is good info Ron. Did you go to a local attorney? Can you recomend one?

Debbie

Post by **Ron** » Tuesday Nov 27, 2007

Haha, I was going through a divorce at the time and asked my lawyer what it would cost. I don't know any regular trademark/patent attorneys offhand.

To do a search to see if a trademark is taken, click here

RLeahey14 · Post by **RLeahey14** » Tuesday Nov 27, 2007

were actually learning about this in the computer class im taking, and i wouldnt worry about it too much anymore for the trademark of a product because as long as you have proof of sales within in a certain range, like for state for example it will hold up in court and you will have trademark for that state, and the united states is actually a lot different than in the world, so the new route im taking is to get a website and try to sell some products through online merchants to some friends around the world so that i have proof of sales which will be easy if i need to get a trademark down the road..