Quote:
Originally Posted by ThomasWayne  By law, informal copyright is automatically established upon creation of any original work. However, the level of protection [of intellectual property] ensured by this law is offensive only, meaning you can pursue at your own expense anyone who steals your work.
Formal, or registered copyright is established through applying for such recognition to the U.S. government, providing a "sample" of the claimed work, and paying a nominal fee. For VA copyright protection (the category cues fall under), the sample required is one or more photos and/or detailed scale drawings; the fee is currently $45. If the application is turned down this fee is forfeited and the work becomes public domain.
Obviously, filing a request for a copyright in an attempt to protect a diamond-and-dot cue is hardly worth the cost or effort, and will probably not be awarded. For very unique, on-of-a-kind cues the great advantage to registering a copyright is that the copyright owner gains the official support of the government in going after design thieves. The criminal penalties for copyright violation - hefty fines AND prison time - are severe, and the violations are actively investigated by the FBI, U.S. Customs (if knock-offs are imported to U.S.), FTC and other, rather serious men-in-black agencies. They do the work for you.... |
Well, not quite. Copyright is copyright. There are no "formal" and "informal" classifications. Registering a copyright simply records your creation, may save you time and effort in proving various facts when you're going after thieves in court, and -- most significantly -- allows you to pursue statutory damages and attorney fees in addition to actual damages. If you don't record, then you can only be awarded actual damages, which are often very hard to prove.
Copyright applications are rejected only for incompleteness, meaning that the application, the fee, and the deposit of the work have not all been received. There is no examination or evaluation of the matter being registered, and there is no automatic reversion to the public domain.
Registering a copyright further allows you to record the registration with the Customs Service, which can be beneficial in preventing importation of copies. But other than cases of bulk importation in which Customs is interested, or mass reproduction -- a a major, significant, corporate scale -- there are no Feds, FBI, or other Men-in-Black who are going to "do the work for you." No agency of the government is staffed to do that or interested in doing that for minor intellectual property violations. It's generally up to your lawyer and the courts.
Apart from that, you had everything right.
It should also be mentioned that copyright also secures the right to create derivative works, which would apply to the minor embellishments of TT's cue over JW's original design.
Procuring a design patent would provide much more protection than registering a copyright. I assume that most cuemakers don't take this path because it's much more expensive and requires more time and effort.
Regards, Larry (not speaking for the gummint, but I do work at the US Patent and Trademark Office...)