Copyright a name

Copyright a name

There is a common misconception that there is a close connection between the law of copyright, name protection, and company names.

Copyright attaches to artistic and literary works, such as paintings, sculptures, musical compositions, and novels but to speak of name copyright is to overlook the fact that names need separate legal protection by means of trademark registration. Since names and trade names are not usually artistic works copyright protection does not extend to titles, names, slogans or short phrases. You cannot copyright your name, the title of your post or any short phrase that you use to identify a work.

The reason is that copyright is designed to protect works of creative authorship, it is not designed to protect how that work is identified in the marketplace, the same goes for people and places. Furthermore, such short phrases rarely meet the requisite level of creativity to be considered for copyright protection.

So, whilst it is commonly thought that you can copyright a name and people talk in terms of 'name copyright', there is really no such thing from a legal point of view. Names need to be protected by trademark registration.