How to protect your name, image and likeness as IP

Start with what you actually use

Make a list before you spend anything. For an athlete or creator that usually means:

• Your name and any nickname you sell under
• Catchphrases and hashtags people connect with you
• Logos, monograms and a styled jersey number
• A named celebration or signature move, and the videos of it
• Podcast, show and content-series names
• Merch designs and the original artwork files

For a school, team, league or brand, add the organization's name, mascot, crest, wordmarks and slogans. The free Find my IP tool turns what you type into a checklist.

Trademarks: names, logos and slogans

The USPTO describes a trademark as a word, phrase, symbol, design or combination that identifies your goods or services and tells them apart from a competitor's. It protects how the mark is used with those goods or services, not the word in general.

You become an owner by using a mark with your goods or services, but those rights are limited to the area where you operate. Federal registration is optional and, per the USPTO, gives broader rights, including nationwide rights.

You can use TM (goods) or SM (services) at any time. The registered symbol, ®, is only for a federally registered mark, and only with the goods or services in the registration.

What federal trademark registration adds

The USPTO lists these benefits of registering:

• Public notice: your mark appears in the USPTO's database, so people searching for similar marks see it.
• Your registration certificate generally serves as evidence of ownership in federal court.
• You can bring a trademark lawsuit in federal court.
• You can use the ® symbol.
• You can use the U.S. registration as a basis for filing in other countries, and record it with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help stop infringing imports.

Copyright: your photos, videos, art and writing

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, a work is protected once it is created and fixed in a tangible form, and it doesn't have to be published.

Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans or short phrases, or ideas and methods. That's why a catchphrase is usually a trademark question, while the artwork of a logo can also be a copyright question.

Registration is voluntary, but you must register a U.S. work before you can sue for infringement. Registered works may qualify for statutory damages and attorney's fees, and a registration made within five years of publication counts as prima facie evidence in court.

Keep dated records, and know what they are

Keep the original files, the dates you first used each name or design, and screenshots of where you used them. Records like these help you show what you had, and when.

Know their limits. The Copyright Office says mailing a copy of your work to yourself, sometimes called a poor man's copyright, has no legal standing and does not replace registration. A dated record of any kind, including an IP Vault record, shows you had something at a certain time; it is not a registration and does not by itself stop anyone.

Keep a registered trademark alive

The USPTO schedule for a U.S. registration (not one based on the Madrid Protocol):

• A Section 8 declaration of use between the 5th and 6th years after the registration date.
• A combined Section 8 declaration and Section 9 renewal between the 9th and 10th years, and every 10 years after that.
• A six-month grace period after each deadline, with an extra fee. Miss it and the registration is canceled or expires.

When someone copies you

For copied photos, videos or art, the Copyright Office explains the section 512 notice-and-takedown system: you send a written notice to the platform's designated agent, which the Copyright Office lists in its DMCA Designated Agent Directory.

Per the Copyright Office, a notice needs your signature (or an authorized agent's), the work, where the copy is, your contact information, a good-faith statement that the use isn't authorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and you're authorized to act.

Fake accounts and counterfeit merch usually go through each platform's own impersonation or intellectual property report form.

Frequently asked questions

Next steps

Sources

1. What is a trademark? — U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
2. Why register your trademark? — U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
3. Keeping your registration alive — U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
4. What Does Copyright Protect? (FAQ) — U.S. Copyright Office
5. Copyright in General (FAQ) — U.S. Copyright Office
6. Section 512 of Title 17: Resources on Online Service Provider Safe Harbors and Notice-and-Takedown System — U.S. Copyright Office
7. DMCA Designated Agent Directory — U.S. Copyright Office