Basic legal things everyone should know

[sixfour]

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Anything you make with some minimum level of creativity and fix in some sort of medium has a certain level of copyright protection. for example, your blog is copyrighted. I'm rusty on this, but I think you may have to register a copy with the Copyright Office to sue someone for infringement. currently it looks like copyright protection may last forever, but it's up to Congress.

you can acquire trademark rights simply by selling goods under a certain mark. however, it may be better for you to actually register your mark with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

getting a patent is a huge pain in the ass. there are all sorts of requirements and to even file an application you must be a patent attorney.

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A lot of this is somewhat fuzzy, although my IP learning was under UK/EU systems rather than the US (although IIRC you're under Berne as well now wrt copyright) so I could be incorrect - over here copyright has no system of registration whatsoever, and I think that's now the case in the US as well. Same goes for trying to enforce your rights. However if it comes down to actually trying to settle anything, having some kind of way to prove you've done what you have is very, very helpful.

Trademarks have two tiers as stated, registered and not, I forget the differences right now but if you can actually register your mark (which you can't do for some things that are subject to unregistered trademark protections) you get some additional benefits.

Patents are an obvious pain, but you do not need to be a patent attorney to file. Clearly anyone that's filing an application should use one (if you're going to spend the money on getting one, and they're not cheap, it's worth doing it correctly if you can actually exploit it for robusto-making sums, you'll want to do it correctly), but you definitely don't need to use one to make an app over here.

[x] IANAL
[x] Hedley Byrne applies
[x] my IP course involved Spandau Ballet records
[ ] said course went brilliantly and I'm actively looking for a career in law