

Ask HN: How does sharing trademark or copyright ownership work?  - tci22


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ggchappell
(IANAL; ignore me if you wish.)

First of all, trademark & copyright law are completely separate. Don't depend
on any general principles to apply to both.

Second, it's probably better if you don't think in terms of "ownership". In
Berne-convention signatory nations (i.e., just about all nations, including
the U.S.), copyright exists in most works on their completion, with the legal
author(s) holding the copyright until it expires. That would usually be the
actual authors, unless it is a work for hire, in which case it is usually the
employer.

So if the work is created by employees of a corporation as part of their work,
and there is no contract stating to the contrary, then the issues you bring up
do not arise; the corporation is the sole legal author.

In a work with multiple legal authors, all authors would have to agree to any
licensing. One way to do this is for all authors to agree formally that some
particular party may act as their agent in such matters. If this is not done,
then, whenever any licensing or publishing issues come up, they need to be run
by all authors for their approval.

As for trademarks: couldn't say.

~~~
tci22
Is the paperwork involved laborious? I ask this because I think it would be
interesting to streamline the process and create a marketplace where
conceivably tens or hundreds or more people could 'own' a copyright and/or
trademark, grant licenses and divvy the profits among themselves whenever the
license is evoked

~~~
ggchappell
> Is the paperwork involved laborious?

Depends on what you mean.

As I said in the GP, under the Berne Convention, copyright exists in a work
when it is created. There is no paperwork required. For example, thousands of
people hold copyright to portions of Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation makes
the license, and the terms under which contributions are accepted, clear, and
that's it.

But if you want to be dividing up money, then you'll need to carefully
consider the issues of whether the licensing terms would hold up in courts in
various jurisdictions, how to prove at a later date that authors did indeed
agree to the license terms, and how the licensing terms might be changed, if
necessary, without all authors needing to be contacted individually. For that,
you need to talk to a real lawyer (which, once again, I am not).

And then there is the issue of just how you're going to collect money and get
it to all those people ....

~~~
micks56
I am a lawyer, and what ggchappell said is correct.

The work required to license either isn't difficult. Arguing back and forth on
terms is how the legal bills add up. It all boils down to how much money must
be paid.

Your product is mostly the underlying asset, not the streamlined process.

Remember, every licensee of the copyright or trademark will be selling the
same thing (mostly). How do they differentiate themselves in the market?
Probably price, in a multitude of ways.

