Copyright Protection - Company Names, Logos and Slogans

The objective of copyright is to protect materials in a recorded form that are creative. Literary works, such as company names, are subject to the originality requirements of copyright law. In order to determine whether company names are entitled to protection they must undergo the test that applies to all literary works under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (UK). This question was addressed by the English High Court in the early 1970’s, when the founders of Exxon Corporation (Exxon), a US based company set out to invent a word that did not have lewd or detrimental meaning in any language or culture on the planet. They came up with the word Exxon.

Company Names and Registered Trade Marks

Exxon had not registered a trade mark to protect the brand, and when a company in England adopted a similar name, Exxon Insurance Consultants International, Exxon became concerned that the vast sums it had spent on the research and development of the name would be greatly discounted. And it certainly would be, if any trader could adopt the name. Exxon decided that the only arguable case they had was to sue for copyright infringement of the name “Exxon”.

Authorship and Copyright

Authorship for the purposes of copyright was the pivotal issue, as copyright must vest in the work in order for copyright protection to be available. The UK High Court decided that the name was too short to attract copyright protection. The traditional province of copyright is that of authors, artists, publishers and composers and one word was too short to amount to a literary work.

Copyright law and Slogans

The recent trend in marketing is to assert rights over slogans: for instance, "Wonderfully You" for shampoo - the general rule still applies. The slogan is too short to attract copyright protection and resort was made to the law of trade mark for protection.

Copyright law and Devices

In the Rugby World Cup, the green, blue and white device was used to brand the event by the International Rugby Board. The device may be registered as a trade mark, which registrants are entitled to denote by the ® symbol. The device is automatically protected by copyright which may be denoted by the copyright symbol - ©. This is an assertion of trade mark rights in the device and copyright in the artistic work of the image. In this way intellectual property protection is extended and maximised beyond the mere words "Rugby World Cup".

Artistic Quality rather than Literary Work Authorship

Thus the artistic quality of the image adds another dimension to the work on a visual level and attracts protection from another area of law. This dual strategy for protection has become a common element in branding strategies in a digital age where names may be copied from an entirely different part of the world with minimal effort.

For more about copyright and the differences between copyright and patent protection, click here. For an explanation of different trading entities, click here.