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krasimirgedzhov
Community Member

Branding copyright?

Hello, fellow graphic designers!

 

My question/issue is this - I want to build my portfolio with a branding project, and I've got a very creative and cool idea for a brand, as well as its product, but I'm worried it might be a bad idea putting it out there just like that. How do I make sure the idea stays mine legally?

 

I know you can't stop anyone from plagiarising, my question is how do make sure the idea is legally mine, so that if I encounter a thief I could defend myself legally if need be.

 

*I've searched the forum, but found no relevant thread. Maybe I'm bad or impatient, sorry for which.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

The purpose of your profile page is marketing.
The purpose of your portfolio is marketing.

 

You want to maximize the possibility that clients will want to hire you to work on their projects.

 

The purpose of a portfolio on an Upwork profile page is not to protect your intellectual property.

 

Think of it like this: McDonald's had an idea: Serve food that customer want in a convenient, low-cost and very fast way.

The founders of that restaurant chain spent a LOT of money and time and energy on bringing their idea to fruition. But despite ALL that they put into it, they can't protect that idea legally. If other people are inspired by that idea and want to do the same thing, there is nothing that McDonald's can do to stop them.

In fact, MANY other people have basically copied that idea, and created competing "fast food" restaurant chains.

 

The same thing applies to you: If you present ideas, there is nothing that you can do to prevent people from copying your ideas. Because ideas are not protected by copyright or other laws.


BUT does this mean that you should give up? No. You simply need to understand this is a marketing issue, and not a legal issue.

 

If you have good ideas, you want to be known as the source of those ideas, and you want to be known as the owner of those ideas. You are the person to go to in order to implement those ideas.

 

Just like McDonald's: Whether you love them or hate them or fall somewhere in between, they are the first name that the general public thinks of when they think of "fast food." Even though McDonald's has no legal right whatsoever to the concept they invented.

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7
prestonhunter
Community Member

First of all, copyright does not protect ideas.

 

You can not legally prevent somebody from copying your ideas.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

 

I thought as much, however I was unsure of the proper wording.

If I wasn't clear, let me try it like this - it's a specific product idea and a brand behind it. If I create a mockup of it, show how it works and what's the idea behind the packaging and the brand itself,  and how the packaging works to fulfill the brand's stated mission so on - wouldn't all that be considered my intellectual property and therefore defendable against entrepreneuring plagiarists?

There are basically 4 types of intellectual property protections:
- copyright

- trademark

- patent
- trade secret

 

What you are describing doesn't fit into any of those.

 

You have a marketing question, not a legal question.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by marketing question instead of legal one.

 

Also, I understand everything is a google away, but the legal world is so big to me that I don't know where to start. Do you have place or source where I can understand the basics for these kinds of things, that is digestible for beginners? 🙂

The purpose of your profile page is marketing.
The purpose of your portfolio is marketing.

 

You want to maximize the possibility that clients will want to hire you to work on their projects.

 

The purpose of a portfolio on an Upwork profile page is not to protect your intellectual property.

 

Think of it like this: McDonald's had an idea: Serve food that customer want in a convenient, low-cost and very fast way.

The founders of that restaurant chain spent a LOT of money and time and energy on bringing their idea to fruition. But despite ALL that they put into it, they can't protect that idea legally. If other people are inspired by that idea and want to do the same thing, there is nothing that McDonald's can do to stop them.

In fact, MANY other people have basically copied that idea, and created competing "fast food" restaurant chains.

 

The same thing applies to you: If you present ideas, there is nothing that you can do to prevent people from copying your ideas. Because ideas are not protected by copyright or other laws.


BUT does this mean that you should give up? No. You simply need to understand this is a marketing issue, and not a legal issue.

 

If you have good ideas, you want to be known as the source of those ideas, and you want to be known as the owner of those ideas. You are the person to go to in order to implement those ideas.

 

Just like McDonald's: Whether you love them or hate them or fall somewhere in between, they are the first name that the general public thinks of when they think of "fast food." Even though McDonald's has no legal right whatsoever to the concept they invented.

I see. Thank you for the detailed response! I think that puts a good answer to my questions.

 

Thank you for your time!

Trademark vs Copyright in India

Source: https://ebizfiling.com/blog/trademark-vs-copyright-in-india/