Published & Black Podcast

Copyright + Trademark Game for Authors

• Tiffany A. Green-Hood • Season 1 • Episode 11

Share episode

Feel free to leave us a review 🙂

In this episode, Tiffany A. Greenhood delivers an essential masterclass on intellectual property protection for authors and creative entrepreneurs, covering copyright, trademark, and wealth-building strategies.

• Copyright automatically belongs to you once your idea is put in tangible form (written down or recorded)
• Copyright protection lasts for your lifetime plus 70 years after death
• Register copyright at Copyright.gov for strongest legal protection
• Books, digital products, journals, social media posts, and graphic designs can all be copyrighted
• Trademark protects brand names, business names, podcast names, and event titles
• Book titles cannot be copyrighted or trademarked, but book series can be trademarked
• Registering an LLC does not protect your business name nationally—you need a trademark
• Trademark registration fees start at $250-350 per class when filing yourself
• Beware of companies claiming to "patent" your ideas—verify they specialize in the right intellectual property protection

Protect what you create: Copyright protects your work. Trademark protects your brand. IP builds your wealth.


Speaker 1:

Stay tuned for Published in Black, the go-to radio show for black authors, creatives and entrepreneurs ready to turn their stories into success. Hosted by publishing expert and brand strategist, tiffany A Greenhood, each show will deliver real talk, powerful strategies and insider knowledge on self-publishing, brand building, wealth creation and making an impact with your voice. Whether you're writing your first book, growing your business or scaling your influence, published in Black will equip you with the tools, inspiration and unapologetic confidence to thrive. Listen now and be informed.

Speaker 2:

Hey, it's Tuesday, y'all, I am back. Welcome to Published' Black radio show. I am your host, tiffany A Greenhood, and we are going to dig in today, so last Tuesday, if you missed it, you can go and listen to the replay on um. You can actually go to PublishinBlackPodcastcom or you can click on PublishWithTiffanycom. Okay, either one of those will lead you to my link directly to my podcast. That is where I put all the live radio replays on my podcast, okay.

Speaker 2:

So if you missed the last few Tuesdays and you really want to get it in because you know I'm always dropping those gems, those things that you need, not just for self-publishing but for life, for business and everything surrounding that Okay, so we're going to hop right in. Last Tuesday I talked about I just kind of talked about life, okay, and I'm celebrating my 50th birthday. My birthday was June 14th, so it's been a major, major shift for me and I'm very excited. So I wanted to hop back in with some amazing content for you all. So, if you are in a place where you can take notes, you definitely want to take notes, because today we are talking about protecting your genius, okay, copyright, trademark and IP for authors Okay. So this is just not for authors. But you know, even if you're in a business owner, you don't have a book. This applies to you as well. So let's get it right in, let's get it in.

Speaker 2:

So today we're gonna talk about ownership and protection, ownership and protection. So we talked a lot about publishing a book. We'll write my story, write my story, but you need to also own it as well. Not that you don't already own it, but there are different um. What am I trying to say? There are different um registrations. You can register your trade, your um not trademark your copyright for your book um, in addition to you already being the um copyright. So let's just break it down.

Speaker 2:

So, once you write your book, okay, once you take an idea from your head and you write it on a napkin, a paper towel, a piece of paper, it can be that simple, right. Once you do that, you are the copyright owner. Okay, in photography, once you take the photo I have 17 years in photography, y'all Copyright is strong. I know a lot of people are doing trademarks now and that's amazing too, but let's not forget about copyright. Let's not forget that copyright is still strong and holds a lot of weight, okay, so, like I said your book, your idea, once you put it on paper, tangible paper, okay, that copyright belongs to you. So every photo that I have taken with my camera meaning I push the button on the camera Guess what that made me the copyright owner of every image I've taken. And let me tell y'all something I used to do weddings. I love, I still love weddings. Um, so what does that mean? Yeah, so I charged. I charged brides and grooms thousands to take their wedding photos. However, um, it doesn't matter what they paid you, it does not matter. You know anything else, you are still the copyright owner.

Speaker 2:

The only way copyright can be transferred is in writing. Okay, it's in writing, and copyright stands up in the court of law. Okay, so I need for you to know that. Okay, so you need to make sure that you are copywriting your stories, your books, whether it's a book, a journal. I have journals that I have published, that I created strictly from scratch. I have journals and planners that I use templates, in that those copyrights are owned by someone else. Right now, I have the, the legal, I have the legal right to resell those, but the copyright doesn't belong to me, right? But then I have journals and planners and workbooks that I've created from scratch. Yes, you can take those and you can copyright them. They belong to you. Okay, so it's so much I want to get in today. So I need for you to know that you can go to copyrightgov is the website and you can copyright your book, your journal, your story, your blog posts. I got a whole list that I'm going to give you guys that.

Speaker 3:

Hey.

Speaker 2:

Facebook. Okay, I'm, so I'm live on Facebook and on Tik TOK. Um, if you are already on my Facebook, then you can, you know, click on the lab and follow there and then I am black writer space on um, tik TOK. So just FYI. But, yes, you can go to copyrightgov and you can copyright your book, your journal, workbook, all of that. So even on a napkin. Yes, that's crazy, isn't it? But it's real. So, um, just to just to give you a little list of certain things that you can copyright.

Speaker 2:

So you copyright books, fiction, non-fiction, children's story, poetry, whatever your book is about, don't matter, it can be copywritten. Okay, you are the copyright owner automatically when you write it. But you want to go to copyrightgov so you can have that backup protection? Okay, that's, that's what that's about. It's not that the copyright on your own and I know people still walk around talking about the um, the, uh, poor man's copyright, oh, you can mail it to yourself. I don't know if that stands up in court, but I know this. Do so, just what I'm telling you even get your backup and go to copyrightgov, pay the fee and they will send you. When it's approved, they will send you a um certificate. It'll be a copyright certificate. That's when you know you officially the owner.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so don't do that. I mean don't, don't, don't pass this up, don't like forget to do this, don't like set it to the side because it's very important. So, when somebody try to copy your stuff or resell your book, that's your proof, hey, rone, that is your proof that you, um, are the owner. So don't, don't, please, don't, just skip over this. This is very important. This is probably like one of the most important um teachings I've done since I've been on here. So, yeah, copyrightgov, okay, let it become your best friend.

Speaker 2:

Pull up, you don't know how to it. Pull up every. There's a video for everything on YouTube. Ok, so don't go there. All right, so you do books, e-books, ok. Digital products all your digital products. I'm heavy on digital products. Don't skip over those.

Speaker 2:

Yes, copyright them. I don't care how simple it is, how basic the information may be, whatever Copyright it, it belongs to you. Journals, workbooks, course guides, manuals, blog posts. Did you know that you could copyright and they just added this on within the last three years you can copyright your social media posts. I bet you didn't know that. I bet y'all did not know that. Yes, you can copyright social media posts. Get out of here. Yes, and I know I didn't put so much content on social media you can copyright that stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yes, people cannot just copy your stuff and it's like no, no, there is protection out here. And let me just tell you, copyright lasts from um as long as you live, right? So so let's just say me, my book, I copyright my book. Right, my copyright lasts as long as I live, plus six, 70 years after I'm gone. That's powerful. After I'm gone, that's powerful. And that's why, if any of y'all ever went in um Walgreens and try to print out old pictures, try to make copies, they will not let you because they know the copyright laws period and you'll be like but this, oh this, and that you got to understand it has to be 170, some years old, almost 200 years old, and nobody lives that long. That's why they automatically know no, you cannot, you cannot copy this, you cannot make copies, you can't scan it, none of that, because they will get sued. So just understand, it's copyright is the bomb, okay. So um, even um.

Speaker 2:

Audio and visual content, podcasts, episodes and scripts, recorded speeches and sermons, recorded video content, audio books, voiceover recordings, graphic design you got shirts. I just bought me a heat press, all right, so I'm making shirts and stuff and people, steady, keep hitting me up for orders. Guess what you can copyright your T-shirt designs. Yes, keep in mind, it lasts as long as you live in 70 years after I. Please write this stuff down, okay?

Speaker 2:

So, um, what else we got here original illustrations or artwork, book cover designs. Hello what? I'm a book cover designer. I design book covers for people. I've never had a client ask for their book cover design to be transferred over to them. So what? That means Tiffany. That means I own all the book cover designs that I did. Hello, yes, it is rewards for being a creative artist.

Speaker 2:

Ok, so, yeah, you got to do your homework. You got to do your homework. You got to know you're not just out here just doing stuff and then once they pay you, it's over. No, if you created it, if it's your creative design from your brain, you're the copyright owner period. Your brain, you're the copyright owner period. So we got original illustrations, book cover designs, custom graphics for branding website, even a website copy on your website. You ever wonder why I say copyright at the bottom of a website? Because it's copyright protected. Come on. We didn't know that. Yes, yes, educational and business content, online course content, workshop materials, lesson plans, educational curriculums Y'all see this, and I printed out this stuff so I wouldn't miss anything.

Speaker 2:

What you cannot copyright. Now let me break this down for you. There are certain things you cannot copyright, and we're going to go over certain things. You cannot trademark either. So what you cannot copyright? You cannot copyright book titles, and I know you probably didn't know that, but let me tell you something. This is why this is why you are able to um, have, you are able to publish a book that already has the same title. That's why. That's why you see movies with the same titles, cause you cannot trademark or, um, you cannot no copyright, not trademark. You cannot copyright book titles or movie titles and things like that, so that's why you kind of see them duplicated a lot of times. It could be the same exact movie title and be two completely different movies. One could have been, uh, released 30 years ago, right? So so it's so much Copyright I need for you to know. Copyright is strong and you need to exercise your ownership and your rights for your books and your creations. Okay, and I'm gonna go take a break and I'll be right back, okay.

Speaker 3:

You can turn it on or off. It's hard to understand Sometimes. Is there a master plan? How do I make sense Of everything? Is there a master plan? How do I make sense of everything going to you? Maybe it's not ours to know, so we have to learn to let things go and simply try to make the most of every day and have the faith that somehow we will find the way. So count it on your faith. All that you're going through, even when you're feeling down, count it on your mind. Each moment's a gift to you. So turn it all around and even in the darkest night, if you look hard enough, there's a trace of sunlight. Waiting there, yes, waiting there for you, waiting for you. Been searching everywhere to find that rainbow in the air. Rainbow, whenever I came close, just seemed to disappear. I had to change my point of view.

Speaker 2:

I had to change my point of view. Start looking at myself. I can't believe I never knew. Hey, count it all joy. Y'all, count it all joy. When you are getting information like this, you better be applying it to something, because now you don't have an excuse. See, when you start to get the truth and the truth is being exposed to you now you got some decisions to make, because you can't walk around and say, well, I didn't know, I didn't even know that. Now you know now. So now it's time to make some hard decisions. Okay, because you can't sit around like you know what to do, because you can't sit around like you know what to do.

Speaker 2:

All right, we're going to talk about trademarks, trademarks, trademarks. Now I hear a lot of people throw the word around patent. You know, every time you share an idea with somebody or something, it could be a family member, friend. I've heard this so many times. Even people have told it to me. Oh, you can patent that. You can patent that they don't even be doing what they're talking about. Okay, I tell y'all about starting listening to people. Um, thank you so much. I see y'all comment on facebook and I see y'all coming in on tiktok. Um, you have to be careful who you listen to, okay, because people just throw stuff out there and it usually be something they just heard of and this, and that they don't know what they're talking about. I had a friend call, uh, text me and she said I just got my clothing line patent and I knew instantly she don't even know what she's talking about, because you can't have no clothing line like what. Yeah, do your research y'all. I'm gonna need y'all, do y'all research. Okay, you can talk to ai, ai will break it all the way down for you. Um, google, look up stuff. It's videos on YouTube. Yeah, so trademark, trademark, trademark, trademark y'all. The website to trademark. I'm getting ready to tell you everything you can trademark, but the website is USTPOgov, ustpogov. That is where you register your trademarks, all right, and so what you can trademark? So you can trademark your brand name, business names.

Speaker 2:

Let me clear something up, because a lot of people think, because they registered their LLC, that their name is protected. So I've heard that for years as well from clients, and you know whether I was working with them. And I've heard that for years as well from clients and you know whether I was working with them or not. I've heard business owners say this so much and I don't know where they got this from. But you are not protected. Your business name is not protected. Okay, for a trademark, it's not Okay. It's only protected when you trademark it. Okay, it's not okay, it's only protected when you trademark it. Okay. So just because you create, you register your business and you know which, or because, let's be real, when you register your business you're registering it with the state that you live in, or a state you're registering at state level, okay, um, and so that does not mean that it's protected. That means that no one else can get that name. They cannot register another business in their name in your county has nothing to do with another county, another city, another state. Ok, so you're not protected, and it's such a misconception with this.

Speaker 2:

So here's the deal If you have a business name and I don't use the term business name too much, but if you have a brand, I like to call it a brand because you want to be building a brand, because it expands so much more. So if you have a brand, you want to trademark your brand name. So what is a brand? Tiffany, let's go. Walmart, target, right, best. Chipotle, that's my favorite spot, right. So those are brands, okay. And so brands build relationships and this and this. But they lock down Target. They lock that name down, okay, so it belongs to them. It's federally protected. That's a whole different protection. So you can trademark your business name or brand. I say brand. You can trademark your brand name. So, just because you set up your LLC and you think you know, oh, they can't use that because that belong to me, it don't belong to you. And they can go and they can trademark it. And then guess what, you'll be looking crazy because they went and trademarked it. So if somebody, y'all have business similar or y'all got the same business name and they go trademark it before you guess what, it's probably going to get approved. So, hey, you've got to be on top of your game in business. Okay, you cannot walk around saying what you don't know. Um, so you can trademark your business name, brand, brand name, author, imprints, you know, publishing brand, podcast name. You can trademark that. If you have a conference and you had this event, if there's an event that you have every year, yes, you can trademark that. Yeah, I would advise you to trademark it because you never know who's coming to. People are just as you are, um, igniting your businesses and your brands. Somebody's somewhere sitting thinking about the same thing, so everything is not so unique all the time. Sometimes a lot of other people thinking about it too, and they may just go ahead and just lock it down, and so what that happens is, if they lock it down, then they can send you a cease and desist. You got to take all your stuff down and this may be a business that you've been building for 15 years. No, you can't do nothing about it. So the thing is is to go and start studying trademark. Now most people go through an attorney. Me personally, I'm not going through no attorney. I'm doing mine myself. But if you feel like you, you know you feel better protected with an attorney do that. But make sure you use an attorney that specializes in trademark, not just that they an attorney, because this attorneys out here that do other stuff, they may be a criminal attorney. And if you come in there for a trademark and they say, oh yeah, we could do it, I've seen I'm saying all this because I've seen clients who have paid attorneys and law firms that did not specialize in trademarks to do them wrong. To do them wrong. Yes, that means that. You know. I it's just one girl. She's in indiana, she has, she's a publisher, she do a lot of stuff. She trademarked a brand name I'm not gonna say the brand name and she has on her website that it's a coaching program. She trademarked it. But whoever she had trademarked it, they put it in the category of apparel. That's totally off. Why chill y'all out here paying to do stuff? I know we assumed that because people got titles and they've been to school, all these degrees and stuff, that they know what they're doing. A lot of times they don't. And I've seen that with trademark um, people who have gotten things trademarked that they're getting them, they're not doing them right, they're paying attorneys and they're not being done right. Ok, so you really want to do your research and get somebody who specialize in trademarks? If you're going to pay someone to do it for you, ok, so, so you can trademark your conference names. You can trademark your, your podcast name, your radio show title, youtube show, sky's the limit. Now, when it comes to books, you cannot. I told you you cannot copyright your book title. You cannot trademark a book title either. Here's the deal, unless it's a book series. If you have a book series, or it's volume one or volume two, you can trademark a book series. If you have a book series, so it's volume one, volume two, you can trademark a book series. So, for example, I can trademark my magazine name because it's a series. I put out issues one after another. That's considered a series. So you understand what I'm saying. So if it's just one book you're writing a book about your life you cannot copyright or trademark that. Now, if the same name of your book is your brand name, go ahead and trademark the brand name. Okay, and so it may not stop anyone from buying, from publishing a book with that same title, even if you trademark the brand and it shares the same title as your brand name. I hope you're following me right. It still may not be protected, but you have the, you will have the brand trademarked, okay, and that's only if you're building a brand. So, um, so, yeah, so uh, workshop names, conference names, tour titles, summits or retreats, apparel lines. You know that's what my friend should have been saying when she called and said she had her thing patented. She didn't even know, and so I'm assuming that she probably went through one of them companies on TV they say, oh, patent your idea, don't be calling them folks, because they know y'all don't know nothing, and so they will take your money and you think you protect it. Because she came back and said I ain't say too much, you know, because people, you know they don't trust nothing that you're saying. You might have everything that they need, but they'll trust some whack company like that. So it's just like. It's just like, it's just like that. So. But she came back and she mentioned, um, something about she couldn't. Oh, they say I can't sell online. And I'm like what she said all the wrong information. I ain't say nothing, I'm just like lord, thank you, thank you for making me smart, thank you for making me brilliant. And you know, I go and I do the research and I read and I see the truth right in my own face. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, so be careful out here. So go and study trademark and trademark and copyright so you can start to protect your content. That was my whole purpose for bringing this in today, because it's important and we can't be out here lost like this, you know. Oh, and so the fees. Let me get y'all the fees real quick. So, trademark fees um, now, when you go to an attorney, you know some of them charge 2,000, 2,500, 3,500, whatever they fee is, but if you are going to do it yourself, the fees start at 250. They have 250 and 350 per class. Okay, so you, so you can do your homework, you can find out what class you need to be registering your trademark in and then you go from there. Again, the information is out there for you to do this yourself, or make sure you find an attorney that is specialized in trademarks. Okay, I'm going to take a quick break.

Speaker 1:

Some days it seems like it'd be easier to just let go.

Speaker 3:

I know you're praying for a change, to see a sunny day. Nothing good has come your way for so long. You need someone to understand this place your heart is in. You just want to dream again and believe. Your skies may look dim and gray, but know your breakthroughs not far away. So hold on tight. You are too close to give up. That's what we want you to do. Yes.

Speaker 1:

You have so much to live for. Remember what you prayed for yes, don't give up. It's no matter what you're going through right now.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I dropped a lot of heavy stuff today. Again, if you need to listen to the replay, you want to go to publishingblackpodcastcom and you can hear this whole episode. Then you know, get your notebook, take notes. Okay, so I'm gonna leave you with this. Copyright protects your work. Trademark protects your brand. Ip builds your wealth if you are creating it. You need to own it. Okay, we need to own what we create. Okay, stop sitting around like you don't know nothing and go learn something. See y' you next time.

Speaker 1:

You have been listening to, Published in Black with publishing expert and brand strategist, Tiffany A Greenhood. Listen next week for real talk, powerful strategies and much more. Again, we thank you for listening. Did you enjoy this radio show? Well, you too can have your own radio show right here on Rejoice 1023 to promote your business or ministry. For more information on how you can have your own radio show or advertise.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Tiffany A Green-Hood

Host