"Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.¹” It has been said that there are no new ideas, just old ones that have been repackaged and resold. That leads to an interesting discussion on copyright. If you have created some sort of intellectual property within your company, who owns the rights, especially if nothing truly is new under the sun? Just how much do you need to repurpose an old idea before you can call it your own?

I heard an old song the other day. Steve Miller’s "The Joker” was playing on the oldies station I happened to be listening to. If you know your 70’s rock, you know that the lyrics contains the phrase, "Some people call me Maurice, ‘cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love.” Just what is a "pompatus”? The meaning of this word has baffled many a listener of the nonsensical lyrics of the classic rock era of the 1970’s. If you are a fan of the Steve Miller Band, you might have realized that "The Joker” was full of references to Steve Miller’s earlier songs. One of those songs, "Enter Maurice” has lyrics that read, " My dearest darling, come closer to Maurice so I can whisper sweet words of epismetology in your ear and speak to you of the Pompatus of love. " Since "The Joker” was a much bigger hit, many people haven’t made the connection between the two songs. All great, but it still does not tell us where the word Pompatus really came from. A few years ago it was revealed that a R&B singer named Vernon Green had written a song called "The Letter” in 1954 that had the following lyrics: "Oh my darling, let me whisper sweet words of pizmotality and discuss the puppetutes of love." In an interview, Green revealed that he just made up the phrase "puppetutes of love” to mean a dream girl who was a paper doll puppet. Strange? Yes, but it is rock ‘n roll!

So did Steve Miller infringe upon the copyrights of Vernon Green when he changed the phrase to "pompatus of love” and called it his own? I am not a lawyer, so I will leave that to the legalists. However, to date, there has not been a legal challenge to Miller’s copyright of the word "pompatus.” Since the song became popular, there has been a movie "The Pompatus of Love” by Jon Cryer with rights to the phrase credited to Miller.

So just how much do you have to change in someone else’s work before you can call it your own? For instance, if you used to work for Company A and then started your own Company B, can you take Company A’s sales brochures, put your own logo on it, change a couple of words and call it your own? If you are doing similar work to your old Company A and are seen as a competitor, you are asking to end up in a courtroom to defend your actions. Even if it is deemed that you changed enough of the content of the brochure to avoid copyright infringement, you might still be in trouble for stealing intellectual property. For instance, if the photos on that brochure shows the work of Company A, by their inclusion in your new brochure you are essentially claiming that you did the work. However, if you are using stock art photos, you are probably safe since stock art is available to any buyer and Company A could not claim that they were showing their work exclusively. The best advice is to create your own brochure and get away from the look of Company A and any of its language used in the brochure.

On the flip side of things, how do you protect the phrases you use to describe your services, processes and the like? How do you keep another company from using the artwork used to describe your business? The easy answer is to go through a trademark or copyright process. In essence, the person who is deemed first to have come up with an original work is the holder of the copyright regardless of whether or not they have gone through a formal process. (See the web site for the U.S. Copyright Office.) Getting a formal copyright gives you a public record of ownership and gives you legal backing if someone infringes upon your copyrights.

Also understand something about copyright laws. The creator of the work is the owner of the copyright unless they assign this to someone else. If you have subcontracted with a graphic artist, a photographer, a web designer, a writer or a company that provides these services; they own the copyright even if they are working on a marketing piece for you. Make sure you have them sign off on assigning the copyrights to you. Don’t assume that they are like your own employees, who under your employment, give up their copyrights to the company. Even if you are paying the subcontractor, you have to have either a work-for-hire contract or another agreement that assigns the rights to you. Don’t assume you own them if you have paid the subcontractor. The law is on the side of the person or company that is the author of the completed work.

________________________

1.     Ecclesiastes 1:10, The New International Version

A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's Storehouse of Human Knowledge: In Steve Miller's "The Joker," what is "the pompatus of love"? The Straight Dope, October 25, 1996, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/972/in-steve-millers-the-joker-what-is-the-pompatus-of-love

Urban Dictionary, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=puppetutes

Photo by Jon Schulte