Yes, I told you so! Don’t you dare call me a liar!
I had a totally win earlier this day and it sure made my day. Last week I had a rather feisty argument with the owner of another school that trains nutritional counselors. The person, and name will remain unknown, claimed that you had to have a specific license for your written work to be copyrighted, and since I didn’t have that (according to that person), anybody could re-use my educational material. I disagreed with that, as I was pretty sure that everything is automatically copyrighted according to ‘The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works’ and can only be re-used with the writer’s permission. He also claimed that my company had no legal rights since it wasn’t trademark registered, which Adeo Nova of course is.
Adeo Nova is a registered trademark, and I own it.
I told him so, but he claimed that I was lying (now why the hell would I make up such a thing?). He asked to see my registration papers, which I of course do not carry around with me, and pulled out his papers that he had stashed in the trunk of his car. I couldn’t really see the where this conversation was heading, and was stunned that he actually dragged me to his car just to show me something I wasn’t the least interested in seeing.
Adeo Nova is also a registered enterprise in Sweden, registered in my name.
Well, as it became clear that he was trying to say that my company was inferior to his, and that I was not protected (and he did also mention that: “I can get you under my feet” and “My people know everything about you”) I decided to walk away and maybe give the police a phone call instead. Anyways. After talking to a copyrighter and a lawyer that specializes in copyright laws I can happily say that yes, I was SO right! You do NOT need a paper or a license; everything is copyrighted automatically when you write something (even my blog).
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
And to you mr, X I would like to say: “In regards to my trademark registration, you are most welcome to check it out. I know you read my blog. Contact me again, or threaten me again and I will go to the police. For now I will just assume that this was an ignorant blunder, or that you think that you can scare me of the market.” How do people have time for this kind of shit? If you are occupied stamping on other people, how do you find the time to make money? It’s beyond me. Sure makes an interesting story though!
