Posted under Copyright & Graphic Design & Intellectual Property & Legal Issues & Logo Design & Trade Secrets & Trademarks & Web Design
Many creative professionals are aware that we must protect ourselves by contracts and by being copyright conscientious. However, few are aware that aspects of their creative business may be warranted trade secret protection. Dr. David Himelstein states in his website, “[t]rade secret law can be used effectively to protect web sites and computer software.” (Himelstein, 2006) It is not advised to rely purely on trade secret protection though; websites and software would benefit best from copyright protection and patents in conjunction to trade secret.
Most people are extremely confused about copyright law and what constitutes as “fair use” and whether or not you should ask for permission to use someone else’s copyrighted works. As a former Intellectual Property paralegal I know how important it is to use materials that are either royalty free of have been granted free to use via written permission from the creator or is in the public domain.