(Note: Eva-Marie has been a practicing attorney for approximately 15 years. During that time, she has been President of the Orange County Barristers, President of her law school alumni association, served on the Orange County Bar Association Board of Directors for seven years and as chair of the Orange County Bar Association Legal Referral Committee for three years. She was a panel attorney for California Lawyers for the Arts, and has lectured for that organization on copyright issues.)

Q. "What is the difference between a Copyright and a Trademark?"

A. Let's get the legalese out of the way. Copyrights cover literary, artistic and musical works. Trademarks are brand names or designs (logo's) which are applied to products or used in connection with services. I know this is perfectly clear, I will nonetheless bore you with further explanations.

Copyrights are, however, fairly straightforward if you put them in context with my last three columns. They protect how something looks, sounds, or words that fall in a length beyond just a short phrase.

Trademarks, on the other hand, would protect the NAME of that particular image or sound. LAZY Boy and McDonald's are names which describe certain types of furniture or food. I have a client who thought the term "Mousin Around" was a particularly clever, topical name. I was able to procure that name for her. Now she can apply that name to any stamping product that does not infringe on someone's copyright.

I live in Laguna Beach which has the bulk of the surfing industry within a 50-mile radius. People in that industry do not care so much what the design looks like on a T-shirt. (After all, a T-shirt is a T-shirt.) Therefore they're not as concerned about copyrights. What they do care about is the name on the T-shirt (i.e., "Board Meeting", "Quicksilver"); it's the name that's trademarked.

My intention with this short introduction to trademarks is for you to ask questions that will clear up some of the fog that may still exist.

(Note: Have any questions regarding copyrights, trademarks, or other business-related legal issues? Your name will not be used. Mail, fax, or email your questions to Eva-Marie Boyd, 1160 Catalina St., Laguna Beach, CA 92651; fax 949-497-3148; email LAWDDAW@aol.com. To read previous Q. and A. columns, click on the titles in the right-hand column.)

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