Can you copyright keywords

You will be found first and not me. The results? The company that was being sued for trademark infringement won the case. The company that was claiming trademark infringement lost. Is it legal to claim trademark over keywords? The answer is no. She also said some other things that made me know that she was telling the truth and she is trying to get her name trademarked. He closely follows these Trademark lawsuit cases over keyword searches and advises that filing a lawsuit will be fruitless and a waist of money.

You can follow him on his blog to see how each trademark lawsuit plays out. However, Descriptive Marks can use descriptive words as long as it has a secondary meaning. Subscribe to our Newsletter and receive. Plus you'll receive exclusive behind the scenes news and photos, special promotions, more coupons, and new product announcements.

Is it legal to Claim Copyright over Keywords? And that was her whole point of contacting me. A little disclaimer. Good Morning Friends! Is Maker Friday a thing? If the Internet is made of of words, and Google ranks sites based on word searches, then it makes sense they would start to pay more attention to the rights and protections associated with specific words and phrases.

Not long ago, Google and the USPTO entered into an agreement to make many USPTO products available to the public, including Patents grants, published applications, assignments, classification information, and maintenance fee events and Trademarks registrations, applications, assignments, and TTAB proceedings.

Further, as the above chart illustrates, Google has reported a huge spike in the number of removal requests related to DMCA takedowns. Google has been noted by many in the industry as being as being extremely compliant with removal requests. So MANY searches have been affected that its becoming common place to see the Chilling Effects notices at the bottom of many competitive search results. Are you seeing the big picture here? If sites are getting penalized for infringing on intellectual property, can a site get SEO credit for being registered with the USPTO — we guess probably so.

Coca-Cola bottles and distinctive wrapping or decor fall under this protection. However, this must be non-functional and original to receive protection of the law under the trade dress. If you have a company and someone uses that same name or logo for non-commercial purposes, you're covered. Even Morgan Freeman trademarked his name to take back www. Above all, a trademark must be distinctive to distinguish itself from other companies. There are varying degrees of this, but they include:.

Distinctiveness is also important for maintaining a valuable trademark. Over time, the distinctiveness of a trademark may diminish, and this has some serious backlash. If a trademark is used too much, it becomes a generic name for a product. This means the trademark holder has no litigation power if another company uses the product.

A trademark also refers to an entire trademark and not pieces that add up to a total trademark. According to the Paris Convention, a product cannot be trademarked if it:. For example, the words "dry" and "baby" can describe diapers, but on their own, they cannot be trademarked because they lack distinctiveness.

However, if you put the two together to form a brand called "Baby Dry," it would be a valuable trademark because of its distinctive nature. A trademark is valuable and flexible. Logos, symbols, words, and even colors can be trademarked.

The only difference is that the trademark cannot affect the good at hand. For example, you couldn't trademark tinted glasses because the tint directly affects the product. There are three possible trademark categories in terms of intellectual property :. Because a trademark registration can take nine months to a year, it's important to start early. To apply, simply enter your application to the U. Patent and Trademark Office. You'll have to select a class on your application.