Got Emailed by a Faux about Copyright Laws!

[cass335]

Okay this is a funny story for you. A local “photographer” emailed my business through my business page and told us we could not use  “award-winning” in the description of our website because that was their studio name and due to “copy right lay”  we could not use that. LMAO! Seriously they said “copy right lay”.  Along with a TON of other grammar, spelling, punctuation and capitolization errors. Based on their photography, I am certain the only awards they have won are ones they paid for. My awards (though few) are legit, and ones that I am actually quite proud of. If they are emailing me about this description they better get to work emailing the thousands of other websites that have that description on them.

[fstopper89]

Nice! I remember someone on here linked a fauxtog named “Award Winning Photography” and it was terrible! Is that the same one?

[cass335]

Yup, that would be them.

[Sarah]

Thats rediculious. It says on the website that the name is regestered but I believe that would mean no one else can use it as their business name. They have no right to say people cant use it in their business decriptions. …if that is the right person anyway

[cass335]

That’s what we told them. We let them know that we are not using it as part of our business name, but strictly as a description. We told them if they had something legal stating that we could not use it as a description then we would gladly look at it, but as far as the copyright law we were not violating anything. I am super curious to hear their reply, but nothing yet.  And I feel prett good knowing we know the law pretty well. My hubby is really good with law. He isn’t an attorney, but his parents joke that he should have been one. He wrote our business contract, and a lawyer looked it over and said it looked great.  =)

[JimC]

That is funny!

Incidentally, I just looked through the records at the USPTO’s website, and there are no, as in zero, registered Trade marks or Trade names for “Award Winning Photography”. Getting a trademark on your name is the first step to having any ability to protect it.

But even if they went that far, that doesn’t even stop you. Just look at the Apple/Amazon AppStore saga. Apple and all their well-paid lawyers couldn’t convince a judge that “app” and “appstore” were their own personal property, even though Apple had used it as a trademark. And then there’s the fact that common use phrases, such as “Award Winning” are not individually permitted to be copyrighted.

What a gem of a fauxtog you found 🙂

[fstopper89]

Yeah sounds like a load of bull… I believe Jim C is correct that there are certain words and phrases you can’t lay claim to. For instance, my business name is my first and middle name which are both pretty uncommon, especially together. Since it is my name, certain rules apply such as i don’t have to “register” it to own it… or so, I have read. However, if someone’s name is Ashley Ann Smith or whatever, you can bet there are 100 photographers who go by “Ashley Ann Photography.” If it’s a word/phrase like “Snappy Pix Photography” I think they have to go through a legal process to first find out if there’s a legitimate business already using that name, and then go about registering it. I can imagine it’s a long process. They’re idiots though for calling themselves “Award Winning Photography” because of how generic and widely-used that phrase is! Sounds like they’re not legitimate anyway, and you should ask them for the phone number of their lawyer. If they give you a real phone number you should call it, as I’m sure a lawyer may want to know if someone is pretending to have their legal consult.

[iliketag]

I really want someone to link them please!

Here’s the advantage of totally frivilous names like that though, and possibly why fauxtogs grab them: Search Engines.
When you get a lock on a domain name or go to register a name that would be wanted by others, especially something so easily grabbed by a search bot, you can be sitting on some serious cash for virtually nothing.
Remember all those weird .co.uk domains Thomas linked us to in the Fauxtogs Who Should End Up on the Main Page thread? Same kind of thing; the domains easily grabbed by search engines drum up hits on it’s own.

That is the most annoying thing about them. Exposure and the allure of cheap prices for a “professional” service will bring in clients and severely damage local trust and possibly reputations if the client gets burned (which is inevitable).

[fstopper89]

I just looked up the US Copyright website. It says that names can’t be copyrighted, but they can be trademarked. I don’t have time now to look up all those rules though, so I’ll look at it more later.

Before I started doing photography as a business I came up with a name I thought was totally catchy and I had planned to make it my official business name in the future. I honestly came up with it all on my own. Later, to my dismay, I found a bazillion other photographers using that name and realized how cheesy it sounded! It was Flash In Time Photography. Ugh, totally fauxtog-cheesy-stupid name!

[cass335]

They responded thanking us for our time and response, and that they understand now.

[iliketag]

Well it’s good they gave up I guess? It’s humorous that they tried anything in the first place.

Yeah, I started picking mine this year to get the facebook page with that name reserved and to start on buying domain names early on. I figure I could sell them off later if contacted and I choose to change the name.
I didn’t want to use my name, not because it’s common, but because I don’t actually like my name… so I settled for something easily brand-able (hooray for business!) while still being catchy/memorable enough to stick out in your mind.

A friend of mine trademarked his name I want to say about five years ago. He made 15k selling advertising space on his forehead for 30 days (yeah, he got a henna tattoo of whatever brand bid the highest… freaking weirdo-genius guy.). Now that he’s making a movie, people are tying to buy up his domains that he registered and sat on. I see a lot of that in this industry; names that are sat on/inactive but have outrageous asking prices for the domain.

[andyhal]

Is this them?

 

http://www.awardwinningphotography.com/

 

Them or not, ugh.

 

Really? -> http://www.awardwinningphotography.com/Wedding%20Photos%20183.jpg

[photocriticgirl]

They’re terrible! Oh god! Just, no! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!

They should just stop!

[iliketag]

Holy CRAP!

Before the photo on the main page even loaded, the site was godawful. Then the picture loaded… They had SUCH a great chance to capture something fun and great. That backdrop was really pretty and everyone looked like they were having fun… but a blurry picture like that with no fill light to even it out? WHYYYYY. I’m scared to look at the rest. I might cry for these poor brides.

[cass335]

That is not them but wow were those bad. I was avoiding a link, but I guess it doesn’t matter since it has been posted before. I do think it was good that they gave in so quickly. I have trademarked my business name. There is another business that uses the same name as mine, but it isn’t even in the same state, and I don’t care to go after someone if they aren’t doing anything to harm my business.  If they were local (or even same state) then I may go about it differently.

http://www.awweddingphotographybymichaelandstacey.com/

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