Protect Your Creations

Your ideas matter. Protect your creations with copyright, © notices, and vigilance. Don’t let copycats win—own your work!

I need to take additional steps to protect my creations. These days, it’s far too easy for others to copy and reuse what creators make — sometimes completely ripping off our work. Unfortunately, there’s no perfect way to prevent this from happening.

Let’s get the legal stuff out of the way first: I’m not giving legal advice or telling you what to do. Think of this post as me talking to myself — just sharing what I plan to do to protect my work.

In the U.S., creators mainly have two legal tools: trademarks and copyrights.
Trademarks can be expensive — typically costing over $300 to register. For now, I’m focusing on copyrights, which are more straightforward and often sufficient for blogs, writing, and creative content.

Since I’m not a legal expert, I’ve been learning from semi-unreliable online sources and have decided to start down the path of copyright.

There are two kinds of copyright protection: automatic and registered.

Most of my work will rely on automatic copyright, which is automatically applied as soon as I create something. If one of my blog posts unexpectedly blows up — say, over 500K views within the first three months (hey, it could happen!) — then I’d consider registering it officially.

Why register? Registration gives you stronger legal rights and the ability to claim higher damages in a lawsuit. And yes — we all like money.

Under the Berne Convention (recognized by more than 180 countries), my work is automatically protected the moment it’s created. I don’t have to register or even use the © symbol — though I still think it’s a good idea to include it as a reminder that the content is private property.

Here’s what I’ll be placing at the bottom of my posts or website:

© [Year] [Your Name]. All Rights Reserved.

I’ll also be adding a Terms of Use page, which will include:
1) Full terms of use
2) What people can and cannot do
3) How to request permission
4) Contact information

Maintaining copyright does take a little effort. It’s up to me to stay vigilant and look for violations. To do that, I plan to run searches using Google and tools like Copyscape.

Internationally, enforcing copyright laws (or even patent laws) can be significantly more challenging. Still, awareness helps.

One last note for bloggers: if you allow comments on your site, it’s essential to include a DMCA notice as well.

© 2025 Tim Jackson. All Rights Reserved.