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[jc]

Two questions for the forum members...

1) Do you know of a service online that the general public can use to start a copyright search? I have found one website along those lines, but I'm not sure how thorough the search is, or how accurate it is: http://www.nameprotect.com/cgi-bin/FREESearch/search.cgi

I know that I may have to ultimately pay for a search, but wouldn't the registering of a copyright or trademark include a search by the copyright office? Why pay twice for a search?

2) I am ready to produce products (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) to the members of a resort community that will feature the logo of the resort. This is not a tourist resort, but rather a community with year-round living in established homes (they call it a resort community.) My question concerns the logo used for the resort. I can find no information to indicate that the logo has a copyright attached to it. The logo itself, as well as any publication that I find with the logo, or even the bylaws of the community have nothing written about the use of the logo.
There is potential for marketable products to be sold using this logo. If I obtain the copyright for the logo, will I then have specific rights to its usage including those of the resort community? I am not looking for a way to exploit the logo or the community...to be "paid off" to have them buy it back from me, but I'd like the opportunity to manufacture items with the logo and sell these items to the community. If I approach the resort committee, I am sure that I will be told not to pursue this opportunity. They will then carry out my idea and generate income for themselves and/or obtain the copyright themselves locking me out of the opportunity.

Thanks for your help. Sorry if my questions were long-winded.

[harris]

Hi,
The logo should be trademarked for protection.But since the logo has already been in use and has acquired a reputation in the market (since you think the logo is marketable), you will have no right over the logo. The community alone holds the right over the use of the logo.
Harris

[jc]

You state, "The community alone holds the right over the use of the logo."

If I am a member of that community, then I am able to use the logo as well as any other community member? Since I own property, pay yearly assessment fees, and live in said community, I have the right to use the logo as I see fit?  That doesn't make sense to me.

That opens up a can of worms where anyone can use the logo as they choose. If the logo in fact is not owned or regulated by a copyright, then it's fair game. When this happens, the logo, or any logo for that matter, has the potential to become bastardized and manipulated into something totally different than it's intended use.

All the more reason for the logo to be protected under a copyright and the standards of a corporate identity put into place such as use of fonts, colors and how it is to be used in various applications.

Thank you for your input...I appreciate your comments.

[FFrozen_out]

Dear JC,

You first have to know what you are doing before you do anything, even without a lawyer.

Copyright searching seems like the last thing you need from what you say.

If consult a lawyer it better be an Intellectual Property Lawyer you can trust. Even though I believe that IP lawyers tend to be a cut above the rest of the Bar, there are still some that may still take advantage of a client by doing what they are asked to do without counseling as to the whole scope of the law and the risks and cost and how to deal with the best risk.

M. Arthur Auslander
Auslander & Thomas-Intellectual Property Law Since 1909
3008 Johnson Ave., New York, NY 10463
7185430266, aus@auslander.com
ELAINE's Workshop®
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[DS Fields]

I believe what Harris meant by "the community" is not the community in the social sense, but the community in the sense of the resort management. You obviously recognized that the resort committee might have some authority in this area.
What I believe you are running into is an established associative icon, regardless of whether it is registered for protection as a trademark or copyright. Think of it like if Nike had been using the swoosh on their products for 20 years and everyone always associated the swoosh with their products and nothing else.

For someone else to start producing with swooshes on another unrelated, unaffiliated product, it would be a clear case of consumer confusion. It would appear that Nike was producing/endorsing this product.

The same holds true with your resort association. If you assume full license to use that icon, and decide you want to make t-shirts with an offensive slogan, it would appear that the resort is endorsing it.

I understand your frustration at seeing an opportunity and wanting to capitalize on it, but this is not yours to use. Perhaps you could approach the committee with an offer of collaboration. You could produce and sell and just give them a cut of the profits. It may be as simple as that.