Hi Nathan, I think it's great that your asking. Many people just go out and start doing something new only to find out that someone else takes the idea. I'm not an attorney so this is no legal advice but here's some guidance (I'm sure someone else can expand on this and hope someone will verify it)... I'm not sure by your post but there are 3 things you could be dealing with; 1) Patents; 2) Copyright; or 3) Trademark. The general rule on all is to have a public record of your 'thing' as early as possible. That record may be with the US Patent Office, etc. but it's a bit of a game because the less money you have, the more careful and complete you need to be. Patents are the most expensive to get and the most risky. Typically an attorney is your best bet but there are do-it-yourself opportunities. Copyrights are easy. You can fill out the appropriate form and include a copy of your work and send it in with a small check. Last time I did one I think it was $60 or so. Trademarks are more complex because they are difficult to clearly identify. Assuming you want to trademark something like a logo, you can simply add a small 'TM' just outside the graphic area. This is an indication to anyone who sees it that you are claiming it as unique and yours. You haven't registered it, but you're giving notice. You really need to put this on EVERYTHING that includes the logo (or whatever it is). You can also register a logo which means that it's on record that it's yours, then you would use the 'R' in the circle (R) indicating that it's registered. The date you create public evidence of your claim to the intellectual property is important because intellectual property is hard to clearly research. If a dispute ever arises because two people have a logo that look very similar, whomever can prove theirs existed first, wins. This is a bit oversimplified but generally a good way to look at it. Placing something in an envelope and mailing it to yourself is probably not the best bet because it's easily manipulated. You may want to look deeper into options. Good luck - I hope what you have brings you lots of money and happiness.

According to copyright.gov: 'the practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a 'poor man’s copyright.' There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration. For more detailed information on patents, copyrights, and trademarks, including FAQs and how-to guides, check out the Business Law Guide on Intellectual Property

@WoodenCrates That was a really thorough answer. Thanks. Actually, I've  researched this issue and there's a ton of info on the Web, but unfortunately it's not always easy to decipher. I'm not sure the 'TM' or the 'c' inside a circle - just by itself - will always work, though. Because, in the age of the Internet, a person can put it those emblems on anything, at any time, and it is harder to prove when it was first 'registered'.   The poor man's copyright ... we did this for our company, before registering it as an LLC. We took all documents, Web files, etc., and put them on a USB disk and sent it to our business address, registered mail. The Registered mail system provides a record of date of origination for the item(s) inside; the files on the disk have the actual content that is to be copywritten. This way, it is very easy to establish (1)that the idea is ours (2)when the idea was created. That, combined with LLC status, which obviates the fact that we planned to do business using that intellectual property, more or less protects our copy rights.   Though it is cheaper, from what I understand, such a 'poor man's copyright' does satisfy the legal requirement for a copyright. The only difference being, that if someone violates your copyright, and all you have is a piece of registered mail, you will still need to get an official, state-sanctioned copyright before you can pursue legal action in a court of law. (At least, this is the way it was explained to me, but I am not a lawyer either.)

I'm a little confused about your reference to the LLC. Aside from that, the issue often comes down to money. What's right and wrong rarely is a factor when it comes to intellectual property disputes. It most often comes down to how valuable that property is to you when it comes time to protect it. You're right about the TM and (C) or (R) but that has always been the case. Anyone can put them on anything. The point to the TM is that you are claiming that you want to protect it. Someone else may have done the same thing before you and if they can't prove it, you lose. But if you don't put TM on your property then you aren't making a claim that you desire to protect it and you are implicitly stating that people are allowed to copy or recreate it all they want. I think that using the (C) or (R) if something isn't registered is illegal but I could easily be wrong on that. Just the same though, you are only giving notice that you have registered it. Someone else can research that fact. In both cases, it the real world it comes down to what you are willing to spend to protect it. I typically use TM because it's free and unless I do something much larger than I usually do, it would be impossible for me to protect anything against a large company. (I think the (C) indicated a lesser level of protection but I don't remember for sure.) The reason I wouldn't consider mailing anything is that I would guess with 100% confidence that it's been done and challenged in court. Again by someone with more money who can hire someone to prove that you can open and reclose an envelope without evidence of doing so. Unless you can afford $10 or $20K (as a guess) just for the tests to prove that the envelop wasn't opened then, again, it's worthless. Also consider when you will open the envelope. An attorney or judge are not witnesses so you wouldn't wait until you're already paying an attorney and standing in court. You would likely have to research credible professional witnesses then hire one and then have the envelope inspected by a lab before you open it. All this is speculative and subject to jurisdiction, the other party, your budget and the value of the property, but again, in real world situations it really comes down to available capital. I hope that helps but I think you've got things going by doing your research.

My main concern is protecting the name of my business and my website content, and all the videos that I make. I have seen a few of my friends who have made something and then posted it, and their ideas have been stolen, and they couldn't do anything because they are not under any protection. I want to be able to have a blanket protection for my company name and anything that has that name on it. It is really hard for me because all my videos are digital, and put t DVD. It can be easily manipulated. And it can be ridiculously easy to modify timestamps for digital creation. It would never hold up in court! But I am also assuming that doing something like this would cost thousands of dollars that I don't have. 

To a certain degree, your concerns are manageable but anything on the Internet can be copied and hidden from the author if someone tries hard enough. But the more they hide if from you, the more it's hidden from prospective customers of theirs. If your concerned about photos, consider posting them as jpgs and assure the EXIF and/or IPTC copyright metadata is in tact. I'm not sure what's available for video. After you've posted content on the Internet but before you start to advertise or tell people, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap. (You'll have some lernin to do.) You can also submit to assure non-text content gets indexed. Keep an eye on the indexing data using the webmaster tools. After the site has been indexed, Google has record of the original source of the material. They use facial and pattern recognition to identify duplicates and work hard to keep duplicate content like this from being indexed. This doesn't directly protect you but unless there's software on the web that provides you with the same info (which there very well may) but doing this will make it easier for you to sell your product than someone else. Also, after Google indexes your pages, you can view the cached page and do a print screen. Personally, I think this would be more convincing in small claims court than the sealed envelope idea. For video, you may be best off watermarking anything that's posted and provide a non-watermarked copy to customers. Intellectual content is easy to steal and people will do it. The best you can do is make it harder. You can't do much to protect a company name. You can register myartcompany.com and anybody else can register my-art-company.com. It can go on forever. As well, you can file for a business license in one state and someone else may have already or can file using the same name in a different state and neither of you will likely wind up with a unique name. It sounds like an area where you could have company name protection is if someone else intentionally uses a similar name online. Such as the URLs I mentioned above. If someone uses a domain name similar to yours and sells content similar to you then you could probably have a case but, again, it wouldn't be cheap. All of this is almost meaningless without money in the bank, a law degree or you at least know how to write your own pleadings. I'd consider (after getting indexed) just getting out there and work as hard as you can to sell your product as fast as you can. Some people go for years in fear that they'll get ripped off and they are the one who really lost by waiting.

Silly me, I completely forgot about watermarking!!! And the meta tagging for photos. Thanks for all the help!! And Be certain I will be giving you the kudos you deserve.   Thanks again! 

Good luck !

@NicoleD   Thanks for the references. They are actually very clear and not so hard to understand. It appears one can copyright an entire website content using the eCO filing system. Is that right? I saw a provision in there that said to use eCO for documents only existing in electronic format. A website would qualify, I assume?    

Mayb some1 out there can help, I have an idea for a product so I found www.davison .com and told them about my idea...So the guy tells me its going to cost $700.00 to get this thing started...I just dont have the money and I want my idea protected, I have my idea drawn up so please tell me what 2do next...Thanks Message Edited by NicoleD on 10-01-2009 04:49 PM