Asked in Copyright, Intellectual Property and Trademark for California

Q: Trademarks vs. copyrights?

Trademarks vs. copyrights? I have a business where I create websites and apps. I am not inventing anything new just adding a different take on already existing products. For example, I am doing a mindfulness app for kids. Do I need to trademark everything I do or can I just copyright my work?

1 Lawyer Answer

A: Most businesses do at least "bare minimum" in case of trademarking and that means that they try to trademark at least their main business name and their main product name. Even though copyright protection might extend to some of your business outputs, it does not offer you the trademark protection benefits.

Obtaining trademark is not that hard or expensive in comparisson to other sort of business expenses you have so I highly recommend you to ask some trademark lawyer to have a look into your business and advice you what you should trademark and what you do not need to trademark and ask him for cost-effective solution.

Daniel Michael Luisi agrees with this answer

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