MusicBootCamp.com

Trademark searches are essential for all musicians. It’s probably the first thing you should do before you even begin to record your project or play live shows. Imagine pumping all kinds of effort into your music, your CDs, and your promotion only to find out that someone else thought of (or at least legally owned) your name before you did! In fact, not only could you lose your name, you might even get sued if you tried to use it publicly.

Doing the proper research and registering your name can save you all of these problems. Unfortunately, finding out if someone else already has your name can be very expensive or, at the very least, time-consuming. In fact, most companies that perform trademark searches often charge hundreds of dollars for the service. If you went to your favorite Web search engine right now and entered “Trademark Search” you’d probably get a list of companies like this more than willing to take your money.

Today is your lucky day! MusicBootCamp.com offers you the means of doing your own search absolutely free of charge. We scream and yell the information other companies don’t want you to know. FREE, FREE, FREE TRADEMARK SEARCHES!!! It’s easy, and you can use it as often as you like for any name you can think of. Imagine the peace of mind you’ll feel when you know for a fact that no one else is using your name. What are you waiting for? Go for it!

Anyone who claims rights in a mark may use the TM (trademark) or SM (service mark) designation with the mark to alert the public to the claim. It is not necessary to have a registration, or even a pending application, to use these designations. The claim may or may not be valid. The registration symbol, ®, may only be used when the mark is registered in the PTO. It is improper to use this symbol at any point before the registration issues. Please omit all symbols from the mark in the drawing you submit with your application; the symbols are not considered part of the mark. —US Patent & Trademark Office

When you follow the link provided later, you will see a form that looks like this contained within the page. We recommend you select “live” trademark results. According to our discussion with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on this issue, dead trademarks should not prevent a new application from being approved (of course if someone has a pending or live trademark with that name in the same Class you are applying for, you have little chance of obtaining the same mark).

Once you complete your search, you will see a list of relevant results. Click on each of the items that match your desired trademark. On each result page, you will see a section which looks similar to the following excerpt:

In this example, John Doe is the registered trademark. It is registered under International Class #16 (see IC 016). In the music industry, trademark applicants are generally concerned with either IC #9 or #41 because they relate specifically to recordings and entertainment. So in this example, if you found no other live trademarks for John Doe in classes #9 and #41, you stand a good chance of being able to use this name for your trademark as a musical recording and performing artist. Note: we didn’t check all the John Does, so one of them might actually be registered in either of those classes; this is only a hypothetical example.

Perform a FREE Trademark Search! This link connects directly to the US Patent and Trademark Office. It is not a mirror site or a third-party site, so don’t be foolish and pay someone for what you can easily do yourself. Everyone who charges for the service gets their information from this source for free, and now so can you!

If you are in need of additional trademark information not contained on the USPTO Web site or available through their customer services, we recommend you contact an attorney. Important: we are not attorneys. The information listed on this Web site is meant to provide career and business direction. You must confirm any notions you have about this or any other subject with an attorney or with the appropriate agency.

For your convenience, here is the International Schedule of Classes of Goods and Services as listed in “Basic Facts About Trademarks” as published in March 1999 by the USPTO.

INTERNATIONAL SCHEDULE OF CLASSES OF GOODS AND SERVICES

Goods

1. Chemicals used in industry, science and photography, as well as in agriculture, horticulture and forestry; unprocessed artificial resins, unprocessed plastics; manures; fire extinguishing compositions; tempering and soldering preparations; chemical substances for preserving foodstuffs; tanning substances; adhesives used in industry.
2. Paints, varnishes, lacquers; preservatives against rust and against deterioration of wood; colorants; mordants; raw natural resins; metals in foil and powder form for painters, decorators, printers, and artists.
3. Bleaching preparations and other substances for laundry use; cleaning, polishing, scouring and abrasive preparations; soaps, perfumery, essential oils, cosmetics, hair lotions; dentifrices.
4. Industrial oils and greases; lubricants; dust absorbing, wetting and binding compositions; fuels (including motor spirit) and illuminants; candles, wicks.
5. Pharmaceutical, veterinary and sanitary preparations; dietetic substances adapted for medical use, food for babies; plasters, materials for dressings; material for stopping teeth, dental wax, disinfectants; preparations for destroying vermin; fungicides, herbicides.
6. Common metals and their alloys; metal building materials; transportable buildings of metal; materials of metal for railway tracks; non-electric cables and wires of common metal; ironmongery, small items of metal hardware; pipes and tubes of metal; safes; goods of common metal not included in other classes; ores.
7. Machines and machine tools; motors and engines (except for land vehicles); machine coupling and transmission components (except for land vehicles); agricultural implements; incubators for eggs.
8. Hand tools and implements (hand operated); cutlery; side arms; razors,
9. Scientific, nautical, surveying, electric, photographic, cinematographic, optical, weighing, measuring, signalling, checking (supervision), life-saving and teaching apparatus and instruments; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers, recording discs; automatic vending machines and mechanisms for coin operated apparatus; cash registers, calculating machines, data processing equipment and computers; fire-extinguishing apparatus.
10. Surgical, medical, dental and veterinary apparatus and instruments, artificial limbs, eyes and teeth; orthopedic articles; suture materials.
11. Apparatus for lighting, heating, steam generating, cooking, refrigerating, drying, ventilating, water supply and sanitary purposes.
12. Vehicles; apparatus for locomotion by land, air, or water.
13. Firearms; ammunition and projectiles; explosives; fireworks.
14. Precious metals and their alloys and goods in precious metals or coated therewith, not included in other classes; jewelery, precious stones; horological and chronometric instruments.
15. Musical instruments.
16. Paper, cardboard and goods made from these materials, not included in other classes; printed matter; bookbinding material; photographs; stationery; adhesives for stationery or household purposes; artists’ materials; paint brushes; typewriters and office requisites (except furniture); instructional and teaching material (except apparatus); playing cards; printers’ type; printing blocks.
17. Rubber, gutta-percha, gum asbestos, mica and goods made from these materials and not included in other classes; plastics in extruded form for use in manufacture; packing, stopping and insulating materials; flexible pipes, not of metal.
18. Leather and imitations of leather, and goods made of these materials and not included in other classes; animal skins, hides; trunks and travelling bags; umbrellas, parasols and walking sticks; whips, harness and saddlery.
19. Building materials (non-metallic); rigid pipes for building; asphalt, pitch and bitumen; non-metallic transportable buildings; monuments, not of metal.
20. Furniture, mirrors, picture frames; goods (not included in other classes) of wood, cork, reed, cane, wicker, horn, bone, ivory, whalebone, shell, amber, mother-of-pearl, meesehaum and substitutes for all these materials, or of plastics.
21. Household or kitchen utensils and containers (not of precious metal or coated therewith); combs and sponges; brushes (except paint brushes); brush-making materials; articles for cleaning purposes; steelwool; unworked or semiworked glass (except glass used in building); glassware, porcelain and earthenware not included in other classes.
22. Ropes, string, nets, tents, awnings, tarpaulins, sails, sacks and bags (not included in other classes); padding and stuffing materials (except of rubber or plastics); raw fibrous textile materials.
23. Yarns and threads, for textile use.
24. Textiles and textile goods, not included in other classes; bed and table covers.
25. Clothing, footwear, headgear.
26. Lace and embroidery, ribbons and braid; buttons, hooks and eyes, pins and needles; artificial flowers.
27. Carpets, rugs, mats and matting, linoleum and other materials for covering existing floors; wall hangings (non-textile).
28. Games and playthings; gymnastic and sporting articles not included in other classes; decorations for Christmas trees.
29. Meat, fish, poultry and game; meat extracts; preserved, dried and cooked fruits and vegetables; jellies, jams, fruit sauces; eggs, milk and milk products; edible oils and fats.
30. Coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, rice, tapioca, sago, artificial coffee; flour and preparations made from cereals, bread, pastry and confectionery, honey, treacle; yeast, baking-powder; salt, mustard; vinegar, sauces (condiments); spices; ice.
31. Agricultural, horticultural and forestry products and grains not included in other classes; live animals; fresh fruits and vegetables; seeds, natural plants and flowers; foodstuffs for animals, malt.
32. Beers; mineral and aerated waters and other non-alcoholic drinks; fruit drinks and fruit juices; syrups and other preparations for making beverages.
33. Alcoholic beverages (except beers).
34. Tobacco; smokers articles; matches

Services

35. Advertising; business management; business administration; office functions.
36. Insurance; financial affairs; monetary affairs; real estate affairs.
37. Building construction; repair, installation services.
38. Telecommunications.
39. Transport; packaging and storage of goods; travel arrangement.
40. Treatment of materials.
41. Education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities.
42. Providing of food and drink; temporary accommodation; medical, hygienic and beauty care; veterinary and agricultural services; legal services; scientific and industrial research; computer programming; services that cannot be placed in other classes.

Click here for an expanded version of the above list.

Copyright registration establishes the legal owner and/or publisher of intellectual property for works such as musical compositions or the lyrics for a song. In music, two registration forms are the most common. The PA Form and the SR Form.

PA Forms are used to copyright the composition itself, while SR Forms are intended to protect the sound recording of intellectual property. It is important to understand the difference between these two forms. Theoretically, you could copyright a terrific song using the PA Form, record your project and start selling your CDs in stores everywhere. But if you had never registered the sound recording of your song using the SR Form, another band could send in the very same recording using an SR Form and claim that your recording belonged to them. You would be credited for ownership of the song, but they would get the credit for all your hard labor in the recording studio and collect all the mechanical royalties! Hopefully that brief scenario shows just how important the SR Form really is.

The good news is that you can use the SR Form to do the job of both forms. Simply download the SR Form and, in the space called NATURE OF AUTHORSHIP, enter something along the lines of “All music and sound recording.” This will protect your interest in both the composition as well as the recording, all in one form, thereby saving you the cost of a second registration. This will not work if you use the form PA. Your application will be rejected if you do not use the SR Form to cover both aspects of your copyright.

If you are writing and recording a song with someone else, each space for the NATURE OF AUTHORSHIP might read, “50% of all music and sound recording.” Please note that you can not split percentages with regard to the sound recording. Everyone involved in the recording shares the same interest in the sound recording, even if different weighted percentages are used with regard to ownership of the actual song. If only one person or a few people own the song and more people are involved in the recording ownership who are not defined as providing a “work for hire” then a PA Form should be used to file for ownership and a separate SR Form should be used for copyright of the sound recording.

To save even more money by making the most of your SR Form, register several songs at once. You can register them as a “collection” by entering the name of the collection on the first title space and the individual “content titles” in the second space. To do this all authors must have the same percentages of ownership for each song. In other words, if you wrote one song all by yourself and the second song was written by two people, you would need to use a separate SR Form for each song. If you wrote all the songs yourself, or the same people wrote all the songs with the same ownership splits, you can use one form to register all the songs.

Finally, remember that PA Forms are all that is necessary to copyright lyrics only since there is no sound recording involved in the copyright. To copyright lyrics all you need is a PA Form, your lyric sheets, and your payment. Keep in mind that you can copyright the lyrics to several songs too, using the same principles described above. Have fun!

Download the SR Form or PA Form!

Find additional information and instructions on how to file a copyright by visiting the Library of Congress Copyright Web site!

Be sure to check out the other types of copyright forms like the TX Form for poetry, books and other non-dramatic works. They can all be found at the links shown above!

If you are still mystified or simply want to know more about copywright information, trends and perspectives on fair use, and attitudes toward sampling, etc., check out Negativeland.com’s page on intellectual property issues.

The UCC stands for Uniform Code Council, the organization responsible for the distribution and management of standardized UPC symbols (barcodes) worldwide. Use of barcodes is vital to the distribution of recordings on a local, national and international scale. Barcodes are used to track inventory, identify legitimate record labels, and play an essential role in data collected by SoundScan, which has a direct impact on ranking in Billboard and CMJ music charts and other forms of recognition from these and other companies.

Without a barcode, it is practically impossible to distribute your recording on a national level or beyond. Without one, you may have to resign yourself to a local or very-restricted market. Still, a barcode is not required for you to be successful. However, it is strongly advised and can open a lot of new doors to success.

A barcode number can be obtained from your record label (if you are signed to one) or by your parent label (if you are a sub-label) because these organizations already own a UCC Membership Number and will simply issue you a specific barcode number within a series of numbers which they are authorized to distribute. If you are not signed to a label or you wish to start you own record company, you can obtain your own UCC Membership Number very easily. The problem is that most people don’t know how to go about getting started. Once again, MusicBootCamp.com comes to the rescue, free of charge!

Click here to see UCC Membership Fees, contact the Uniform Code Council, or obtain a UCC Membership Number. IMPORTANT: Do not contact the UCC for individual barcode numbers. They do not offer individual numbers, only UCC Membership Numbers. To obtain individual barcode numbers, click here. Please note that in providing barcodes for your release, we do not submit forms to SoundScan, you must do that yourself. Therefore, you control who is listed as the parent label in your SoundScan form submission. Turn around for barcode registration is usually 24 hours.

Please note that the UCC sometimes distributes series that do not take the release type into account. If you receive codes from series owners where the second to last digit does not correlate with this diagram, do not panic. Your barcode should still work without a problem.

Technical Information:

If you are not familiar with print design and production, this section will not make much sense to you. If you are familiar with print production and the differences between RGB, CMYK, Process and Pantone, this section will help with the proper creation and use of a barcode.

• Barcodes should always print on the Black Layer of CMYK only! Black builds (black comprised of a richer combination of CMYK) will not scan properly and will be rejected by most barcode scanners.
• Vector-based barcode generation is recommended. This allows less opportunity for the image of the barcode to be corrupted as it is manipulated in your image editor. Bitmapped images of barcodes, however, should function just fine as long as they are created at 300dpi, are never enlarged from their original size, and are saved as a grayscale (black) format only. Vector-based barcode generators are preferred because they can be recede without corruption, provided the original proportions are maintained and the reassign is within a reasonable range. Never resize any vector-based or bitmap version of a barcode without keeping the image proportionally correct.
• Recommended height for barcodes is .25 of an inch to 1 inch. When a barcode is scanned, the laser moves across the “bars” in a horizontal pattern. The only advantage to having a taller barcode is to make it easier for the laser to move across all the bars. Theoretically, the barcode could be an eighth of an inch high and still allow the laser to do it’s job, but this would be impractical for obvious reasons. UPC barcodes should not be printed much smaller than 1.125 inches from the left end of the bars to the right. Anything smaller and you’ll be risking an improper or impossible scan.

Dealing with barcodes in the correct manner for graphic design is tricky business and probably best left to the experienced professional (of course we can help you in that department). But obtaining ownership of a UCC Membership Number is easy and essential for music business professionals involved in distribution. So even if you’re not an experienced graphic design professional, you can still take care of your business and work with a designer when you are ready to place your barcode in your album cover art work. Good luck!

MusicBootCamp.com is not affiliated with these sites and accepts no liability for use of their content whatsoever. Enjoy!

Music jobs in nearly all aspects of the industry. Try the job search tool. We think you’ll be surprised. This site is particularly useful for college youth looking for an inroad to the business.

Try entering the term “music” in the search field. It will also help if you narrow your search to specific categories, like “Arts, Entertainment and Media”.

Suggest another resource! We’ll review it and include it if we feel it adds value.

Nearly all fonts found on the Web are PC TrueType fonts which can be used on Windows and Mac OS X platform computers. Download to your hearts content and expand your creative playing field! Here are some of our favorites followed by a quick Google search link to a ton more links (you’ll have to do a little sifting). Cheers!

• dafont
• EKNP
• Graffiti Fonts
• 1001 Free Fonts
• Google Search
• fontcapture.com Create your own FREE!

Suggest another resource! We’ll review it and include it if we feel it adds value.