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Originally Posted by Hawkshaw_245 So, what if I had commissioned artwork associated with my book?
Wouldn't the warrant a trademark?
With a SF novel there are ships, aliens, key scenes in the story.....sounds like a trademark would protect that.
I'm planning to set up a string of artwork projects in association with my writing projects. |
There are times when trademarking something will protect you more than a copyright, but they are very limited. For instance, to take your example, if you were to write a string of stories following a single spaceship - battlestar galactica style - then you might want to trademark the name of the ship. If you had a hero who was the focus of all your stories - Biggles, Spiderman, Bob the Builder to give three very different examples, then the same might apply. However, you would not need to worry about trademarking such a name/object unless you had first gained the sort of book deal that led you to believe your character/object would become the focus of the merchandise industry.
To my knowledge you would still have limited rights over your characters without a trademark. I'm also pretty certain no one else could trademark your creation without your consent, so the only time you might stand to lose would be if you failed to trademark at some point during an explosion of popularity. I suspect you would have an inkling this was going to happen before most other people, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
My question to you is: do you know how to secure your copyright? If not, then this is quite simple. Place copies of your material into a sealed envelope. Sign across the seal and place clear tape over the seal to protect the signature - then mail it to yourself by whatever your version of registered mail is i.e. on a service which requires a record to be kept. Then put the dated, sealed envelope somewhere safe and DO NOT OPEN IT. This is your proof of copyright that would stand up in any court around the world.