Dear Rich: Nolo’s Patent, Copyright & Trademark Blog

Dear Rich: I have a question. If all works created by the U.S. government are in the public domain, can I reproduce the Copyright Office seal at my website? I'm so glad you asked because I was just looking at the 'rebranded' (.pdf) Copyright Office seal and wondering, what was wrong with the old one? (Branding is so dumb ... even sheep hate it.) You can freely reproduce the Copyright Office seal with one exception; you can't use it in any way that indicates you are associated with or endorsed by the Copyright Office. That's because the seal is a registered trademark (Serial No. 89000946). That's right, federal agencies can own trademarks (and the trademark serial numbers always start with 89).

For more about reproducing works that are in the public domain, see The Public Domain: How to Find Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More, by Attorney Stephen Fishman (Nolo).

Dear Rich: I have a question. Last week, you talked about trademark logos. How do you search the USPTO database to find conflicting design logos? I'm so glad you asked. You can search design logos as follows:

1. go to the USPTO website


2. under Trademarks (on the left), click "Search TM Database"


3. then click "Free Form Search (Advanced)"


4. enter a word or words in the search box that signify what you're looking for followed by [DE] (which stands for "design element").

So, for example, if you were looking for design logos that included a meerkat (no not this meerkat) you would type: meerkat[DE]. Cute, huh?

For more on trademarks, check out Attorney Stephen Elias' book Trademark: Legal Care for Your Business & Product Name (Nolo), now in its 8th edition.