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I am just about ready to send a bunch of designs out for copyright through a company that will book them all together for me under one title so I will only be charged for 1 copyright. My concern Is the text based designs that I have, I did put a certain play on the fonts so they don't look like just straight text but I know that It Is hard to get a copyright on the phrase. Has anyone recently put through text designs that you have altered the fonts enough to look more like a design then a phrase and it went through ok? Also I have a few designs that I created and others have since copied and I hope they have not tried to claim copyright on those designs. If this were to happen how can I defend it? I know I should have copyrighted them before I put them out but I was not keen to the whole process. Thank you!
in my understanding of copyrights (i am not a lawyer), phrases are not copyrightable.
i copyrighted a set of designs a few years ago, one of which was text in a sort of math equation. i received a letter from the copyright office that they processed the copyright for the set but that design, if submitted individually, would not be eligible.
btw, you could do the group registration yourself and not have to outsource that, if you want to save money.
re the first question, i found this on the copyright.gov site:
"Copyright protection for an original work of authorship does not extend to the following:
-Ideas, concepts, discoveries, principles
-Formulas, processes, systems, methods, procedures
-Words and short phrases, such as names, titles, and slogans
-Familiar symbols or designs -Mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring"
Yes, I know that its a shot in the dark that the text designs get a copyright but I figure why not try. There Is no way I will trademark them and I have searched and no one else has trademarked them so we will see what happens. I was a little concerned that if i try to send those through that they may reject all my other designs but I have been told that this is not the case. As for my submitting the designs myself, I did not know how to group them together. I have not paid the company yet to send it through but I did send them copies of all my designs to look at first, if I go ahead and try to send in the copyright on my own would i risk the company trying to use my designs since they now have them? The cost for doing this through them is $120.
As for my submitting the designs myself, I did not know how to group them together. I have not paid the company yet to send it through but I did send them copies of all my designs to look at first, if I go ahead and try to send in the copyright on my own would i risk the company trying to use my designs since they now have them? The cost for doing this through them is $120.
I think I just made nice printout on my color ink jet, labeled them however they needed them, and sent those pages in with the application. Nothing fancy is required.
As for stealing your ideas, I suppose that is possible. Although if they don't already have a t-shirt business, I can't understand why anyone would just jump into that fire blindly
again, I am not a copyright lawyer. There's plenty of info on the copyright site to guide you in this process, if you haven't read it already.
Sending Designs Out For Copyright 
Re: Sending Designs Out For Copyright 
