Monday, August 12, 2013

Registration of Iron Creek Photography®


As an artist it's sometimes difficult thinking about the business side of our profession.  Most people don't have a clue that a photograph is instantly protected by copyright the moment it's captured. This is the sole reason for having the ugly copyright notification on our work displayed both here and on Face Book; it protects the image and (hopefully) puts people on notice.  And you don't need to be a professional photographer as any image from any person is equally protected.  (That's why we always ask a client who took the image whenever we're asked about printing.)
 

Likewise the name of the studio is equally at risk, thus the need to properly register the name as a trademark.  While you don't necessarily need to go through the steps of actual registration it will help in the long run to properly protect your name from unauthorized use.

 
Late last year we were notified by one of our clients that they had stumbled upon an Iron Creek Photography that didn't look like our work and were mildly confused.  It turned out it wasn't us, rather someone else.  We had been using the name Iron Creek Photography since 2006 and felt we had the trademark for it; as it turns out we were correct.  After communicating with the other folks they changed their name.  However it got us thinking. 
 
Last September we contacted Legalforcelaw.com to begin the steps necessary to properly protect Iron Creek Photography.  Yesterday we were contacted telling us our request for trademark Iron Creek Photography had been approved on August 6, 2013 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  The following is directly from that notification:

 
"Status Update! On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, status on the IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY trademark changed to REGISTERED.
On Thursday, December 27, 2012, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY by Libby, Don, Tucson, AZ 85739. The USPTO has given the IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY trademark serial number of 85811261. The current federal status of this trademark filing is REGISTERED. The correspondent listed for IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY is RAJ ABHYANKER of RAJ ABHYANKER, P.C., 1580 W EL CAMINO REAL STE 8, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040-2462 . The IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY trademark is filed in the category of Education and Entertainment Services . The description provided to the USPTO for IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY is Photography services; Wildlife and nature photography; On-line journals, namely, blogs featuring cameras and photography locations."
 
We wanted to share the good news about the protection and ask those who are inclined to do so please share the news.
As always, thanks for allowing us to share and we promise next time we'll include images....
 
 
Sandy & Don
 




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