The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11712   Message #88715
Posted By: Richard Bridge
22-Jun-99 - 01:57 PM
Thread Name: Ignore this - HTML Practice - marquee
Subject: RE: Ignore this
While we are on the subject, in most countries it is an offence (not merely offensive) to represent that matter is a registered trade mark if such representation is not true. Depending on the jurisdiction, this may apply to use of the "R in a circle" and/or "TM" logos.

Secondly, it is true that you do "trade mark" matter, for it is a precondition to the acquisition of a registered trade mark that the mark has been applied for. But it is generally not true that you have "copyrighted" matter, for in most jurisdictions copyright arises by operation of law from the creation of a work which is the fit subject for copyright, and registration is not a precondition to the existence of the the right. This is even true in the USA these days (now that the USA is catching up with more civilised copyright jurisdictions (BG)!

Thirdly, US trade mark law is very different from UK trade mark law (as Elvis Presley Enterprises expensively found out).