Hi everyone, my name is Tra’Vaysha Lanae’ Green, and I am a recent graduate of The Ohio State Moritz College of Law. During my time in law school, I focused a lot of my studies on copyright and intellectual property. I am now closing out on my tenure as Copyright Review Assistant for Copyright Services at OSU. I want to extend a special thanks to my supervisor, Maria Scheid, Head of Copyright Services. This would not have been possible without your encouragement and guidance. Also, thank you to everyone who took part in these conversations and everyone reading.

On our next stop of copyright through the disciplines, we stop at the home of entrepreneurial spirit and what keeps the world spinning; business!

First, in the last blog post, I explained what copyright can protect, but this time, I want to explain what copyright can’t protect. Copyright does not protect ideas, facts, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something.[1] This sounds like the makings and aspects of business. I did not go into this part of the expedition thinking there would be much to explore with copyright and business, but I was wrong. I got the chance to talk to Business Librarian Ash Faulkner and learned that many copyright issues pop up in business.

Regarding the academic side, I learned that faculty and students should be very aware of copyrighted materials when they give presentations and build classroom materials. The Creative Commons licenses are a big topic of interest for the Business school.  Creative Commons licenses allows people to use the licensed work under the terms selected by the copyright owner, without having to negotiate for or pay a licensing fee. By default, all Creative Commons licenses require attribution to the author/creator. It is essential to know what can and can’t be used, of course, but it is also essential to know that if you can use something, you must attribute it correctly. Ash Faulkner says most questions about the copyright go towards attribution. Attribution comes in many forms and through many different means and while attribution is not a requirement under copyright law, it is an issue of academic integrity and may also be a required term of a license or other contractual agreement. So if you’re considering going the business route in school, you may wish to become familiar with Creative Commons licenses, including the Creative Commons requirement for attribution.

Another way copyright shows up in the Business school, like in medicine, is through ownership of scholarship and teaching materials. As I discussed, the work you produce through your writing compositions, PowerPoints, proposals, and so much more, has copyright. It is important to remember that you may initially believe you have that ownership. Know that your ownership of copyright may be impacted under the OSU Intellectual Property Policy. For certain things, it may not be up to you to choose whether to sign over rights in the work if you want to be published, for example, but it is still important to know what rights exist.

Now, what about the logos? What about the brands? Isn’t that important to business? Absolutely, but brands and logos can fall into the area of trademarks. Copyright and trademarks are like siblings, but they are two distinctive things. Trademarks can protect words, phrases, symbols, designs, or combination of these things that identifies goods or services.[2]

As expected but confirmed by Ash Faulkner, trademarks are the bread and butter of the business school. Now, do not get more wrong. You can have a trademark and copyright in something at the same time. Take a design logo, for instance; you can have a trademark in the distinctiveness and brand identifier. You can also have a copyright in the design of the logo itself if it has a minimum degree of creativity. So when you’re flexing your entrepreneurial spirit, remember the copyright because it shows up.

I have learned so much about the intersection of copyright in business, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. If you have more questions, I highly recommend that you reach out to Ash Faulkner. Ash would be a great resource to talk to. And for more copyright information, visit the Copyright Services website.

I look forward to sharing what I learned in the next installment, where I will see how copyright intersects with engineering.

[1] What Does Copyright Protect, U.S. Copyright Office. Available at: https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html.

[2] “What is a trademark?,” United States Patent and Trademark Office, available at https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/what-trademark.