Can I Register A Url Under A Pseudonym

Download Commodity

Many writers choose to employ a pen name for many reasons, including to protect their identity when writing a memoir or to write in unlike genres. At that place's no real legal process to using a pen name – typically you can just pick one and use information technology. While most states have laws requiring people doing business under another name to annals with the state, these laws generally don't apply to writers using pen names. However, y'all may desire to annals your pen proper noun for trademark protection and be aware of the potential contractual and copyright consequences of creating work under an assumed name.^[1]

i
Brainstorm possibilities. If you don't already take a pen name in mind, come up upwards with some possibilities that you lot tin evaluate. You might want to choose a pen proper name that is related to your real proper name, or that reflects an effect that happened in your life.^[ii]
- Continue in heed that the pen name you choose will become a part of y'all. There will be people who know you and address y'all past that name, so information technology needs to be something with which you feel comfortable.
- The pen name you choose may depend to some extent on your reasons for choosing it. For case, if you write primarily literary fiction but want to write romance or erotic fiction under a different name, your pen name might have a flowery, romantic bent.
- When considering possible pen names, you likewise may want to continue in mind how bearding you want to be. If you're not terribly concerned about people discovering your true identity, you might cull your heart name combined with a variation of your last name.
- However, if you want to take every pace to ensure your real identity is undetectable, you want to option a name as far removed from your legal name, or the names of those close to you, as possible.
ii
Avert famous names. Search carefully to make sure the pen name you've chosen isn't the proper name of a celebrity or historical figure. A pen name shared by a famous person not just creates a likelihood of confusion, but could become you into legal problem for identity theft.^[3]
- Conduct initial searches of possible pen names online to find out if they're associated with a famous person you may not know. Proceed in mind you're non merely looking for celebrities, merely besides people who are well-known or important figures in their fields.
- Small-scale differences probably won't make much difference if the famous person has a significant and renowned profile. For example, if you've chosen "Maria De La Curie" as a possible pen name, it may exist too close to the name of famous scientist Marie Curie to piece of work for yous.
- Some concluding names, such as Hilton or Trump, are also well associated with famous people to piece of work as a pen name, even if the first name is significantly different.
Advertizement
3
Make certain your chosen proper name is bachelor. Once you've chosen a practiced proper name, search for information technology on the internet and in various databases to confirm someone else isn't already using it. If in that location's already an author with the aforementioned name, readers volition have difficulty distinguishing between you lot and y'all could run into problems trying to register the proper noun.^[iv]
- Bookstore websites are a good place to commencement. Search your pen name as an author name and see what comes upward. If someone else is already using the same name, you should consider choosing something different.
- The U.South. Copyright Function has a searchable database of registered copyrights on its website that you can use. If the proper name comes upward, this ways other copyrighted works are registered under that name.
- Don't forget to exercise a full general online search for the name, which could turn up social media accounts and other stories involving people with the same name.
- Every bit long every bit the proper noun isn't shared by someone who also is a author, your pen name may exist adept to become. However, you desire to consider your ability to prepare upward social media accounts under that name if information technology's a mutual name that others are using.
- Yous likewise want to carefully review any news articles that come up up when you lot search your pen proper noun. Pretend you're a reader trying to find out more than information about your favorite author. Even if articles aren't really you, one of your readers wouldn't necessarily know that.
- For example, if you search your chosen proper noun and find out a notorious killer in Michigan shares that same name, yous may want to go with something else – fifty-fifty if you have never visited the state. The run a risk of confusion may not be worth it.
4
Conduct a trademark search. If you're planning on trademarking your chosen pen name, it's a good thought to go ahead and do a trademark search before you lot settle on the name. Yous won't be able to register it if someone else already has.^[5]
- The U.Due south. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a searchable database of agile and pending registrations on its website.
- In improver to searching for the specific pen name you've chosen, you lot besides want to search for similar names that could easily be confused with yours.
- Movie, television, and video game companies frequently register trademarks for current and potential character names, particularly in popular and long-running franchises. If your proper noun comes up under one of these registrations, you lot'll want to choice something dissimilar.
- Keep in mind that if your proper name comes up in the USPTO database, you probably want to cull a dissimilar name fifty-fifty if you don't program on registering a trademark in the name.
- If a trademark is already registered by someone else, you run the risk of getting sued for trademark infringement if you use it.
5
Establish accounts under your pen name. After yous've cleared your chosen name and confirmed it's bachelor for you to use, become ahead and create an electronic mail address nether your pen proper noun and reserve the domain.^[6]
- You lot can claim a domain name relatively cheaply, fifty-fifty if you don't program on creating a website for your pen proper name notwithstanding.
- Create an email address using a costless electronic mail service, or get an e-mail address associated with your pen name's domain through the company with which you registered the domain name.
- Go alee and claim social media account names on popular social media sites you call back you might apply.
- You'll need social media accounts to market and publicize your writing, and information technology'due south a adept idea to go the initial ready-upwards out of the way even if you don't retrieve you'll need them for awhile.
6
Consider adding a layer of protection. If your purpose in using a pen name is to continue your real identity from beingness discovered, you may want to consider creating a corporation or LLC to use for registrations that volition become a matter of public tape.^[7]
- Arizona is the only state that allows the creation of an anonymous LLC, and the process is rather circuitous and requires hiring an attorney.
- However, even if the LLC is in your name, anyone trying to find your identity would have to find the LLC documents in the database of the country in which yous formed your LLC.
- It's non a fool-proof way of concealing your identity, but it does provide an extra layer of protection. Otherwise, your legal name would be conspicuously displayed on any documents for copyright or trademark registration, which are public records.

1
Confirm your eligibility for copyright registration. Since you lot can't copyright single words or brusque phrases, y'all won't be able to register a copyright in the pen name itself. However, you can register your copyright in the works you create under that name.^[viii]
- Copyright gives you the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute your written work. Keep in listen that copyright doesn't protect ideas, just completed creative work – and so you have to actually complete your story or other writing before it volition be eligible for copyright.
- You take copyright protection from the moment you create your work. Yet, you must annals your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office if yous want to be able to sue people who infringe your copyright.
2
Download an application. The U.S. Copyright Office has a copy of the registration application on its website, which yous can fill out online, or download and print it if you prefer to mail a paper application.^[9] ^[10]
- If you fill out your registration application online, you lot'll have the ability to check the status of your awarding at any time. Y'all'll also pay a lower registration fee.
3
Decide whether yous desire to reveal your real proper name. The length of fourth dimension you volition enjoy copyright protection depends on whether you register it as a pseudonymous piece of work or register it in your legal name and include the pen name y'all wrote under.^[11] ^[12]
- The application requires yous to provide the championship of your work, the blazon of piece of work information technology is, and the engagement it was created.
- You also must include data near the writer of the work. This is the portion of the application in which you must make a conclusion whether to register the copyright in the work nether your real proper noun.
- If you want to be identified by your real proper noun in Copyright Office records, check the box marked "pseudonymous" and provide your pen proper name where required. You so will list your real name as the copyright claimant.
- If you don't want to exist identified by your existent proper name in Copyright Role records, use your pen proper name as the copyright claimant. Brand certain you notwithstanding check the "pseudonymous" box.
- Copyrights registered nether pen names merely last for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever comes get-go. However, if yous use your legal name as the claimant, your copyright protection will final for your entire life plus 70 years.
- If you've created a corporation or LLC and want to register the copyright in the name of that entity, the copyright term will be the aforementioned as if you lot'd registered under your pen name.
four
Submit your application. Once you lot've completed your application, yous tin either submit it online or mail it to the U.South. Copyright Office along with the required fees. The amount of registration fees y'all'll take to pay depends on the type of work you're registering and how you file your application.^[13]
- For instance, if you're registering a unmarried work online, you simply take to pay $35 in registration fees. Nevertheless, if you lot send a newspaper application through the mail, you'd accept to pay $85.
- If y'all want, you can register several divide works at the same time as a series. Registering a series entails paying a higher registration fee than that required for single works.
5
Ship eolith copies. You must include copies of the piece of work that is the subject of your registration application. Copies are required for deposit in the U.S. Copyright Office as well as for employ by the Library of Congress.^[14] ^[fifteen]
- When completing and filing your registration application online, you have the option of filing electronic copies of the work, which tin salve you a lot of time and coin – particularly if you lot're registering copyright in an extensive manuscript several hundred pages long.
- Keep in mind that in some cases the Copyright Office yet requires you to send a physical copy of the work, even if you've already submitted an electronic copy.

Advertizing

i
Consider hiring an attorney. Although you lot don't technically demand an attorney to get trademark protection, trademark applications can be complicated. Hiring a licensed and experienced trademark attorney will assistance smooth the process.^[sixteen] ^[17]
- An experienced trademark attorney will accept familiarity with the USPTO and its application process, which can prevent you from making mistakes on your application that consequence in its deprival.
- Keep in mind that your application will be reviewed by a trademark attorney who works for the USPTO. Still, that attorney does non represent you and tin can't requite you lot any legal advice on your application.
- Since an chaser volition be reviewing your awarding, it just makes sense to have someone on your side to help you consummate it.
2
Complete your trademark awarding. Your application tells the USPTO the name yous want to annals for trademark protection, also as where and how you intend to apply information technology. At that place are two basic types of trademark applications, those based on actual use and those based on intent to employ.^[18] ^[19]
- Applications based on intent to use tend to be more complex than applications based on bodily use, and require you lot to fill up out additional forms.
- Your application must describe the formats in which you'll employ your pen proper noun, and the appurtenances or services to which it will use. This involves selecting commercial classes, and you want to be frontward-thinking in the categories you lot choose.
- Keep in mind that your concern as an author may grow, and you may take opportunities above and beyond simply writing books or stories that involve the utilise of your pen proper name.
iii
File your trademark application. The USPTO allows trademark applications to be filed electronically on its website. Your pending application will exist added to the searchable database and the information in it becomes a matter of public tape.^[20] ^[21]
- You must pay filing fees of at least $375 when you file your trademark application. If you want trademark protection in multiple commercial classes, you'll have to pay higher fees.
four
Work with your awarding examiner. Your application will be assigned to 1 of the trademark attorneys who piece of work for the USPTO. He or she will examine your awarding and determine whether it tin exist approved as is or additional data is needed.^[22]
- Go on in mind the awarding exam can take several months to complete. You can bank check the status of your application online too as update your contact information as necessary while your application is pending.
- If the examining attorney approves your trademark, its pending registration will be advertised in the USPTO's official gazette. Anyone opposed to registration of your trademark has 30 days from the date of publication to file a find of opposition.
- If no one opposes your trademark, the USPTO bug your registration certificate after the 30-day notice period is up.
five
Utilise your pen name consistently. Once registered, you must file periodic documents and pay the required fees to keep your registration agile. Your trademark protection will last indefinitely as long every bit you maintain your marking by using information technology continuously for the purposes listed.^[23] ^[24]
- Having your pen proper name trademarked doesn't hateful other people can't apply information technology at all. There may be people whose legal given name is your pen name, and they aren't infringing your trademark.
- However, trademark registration does mean you can preclude someone else from using the same name as their pen name.
- To enforce your trademark, you lot must bring a lawsuit in federal court. The USPTO does non monitor or enforce trademarks – registration only gives yous the right to file a lawsuit.
- If you were to file an infringement lawsuit, you would bask a legal presumption that you are the rightful owner of the proper name.

Advert

Inquire a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a bulletin when this question is answered.

Submit

Trademarks in the USA arise from the "first use in commerce" of a distinctive brand on appurtenances or services. Registration is entirely optional. Such trademarks are considered "live" until you can prove they were intentionally abandoned by the prior owner.
Exist through in your trademark search. Hire a firm to do a "comprehensive search" of like brands on goods or services, in literature and advertizement, and in domain names, in all related fields, including misspellings and homonyms.
A foreign trademark may be registered in the USA without kickoff proving "use in commerce", based upon prior issuance of a foreign registration.
You lot can sue others in state or federal courts if they infringe upon YOUR trademark in the USA, whether or not it has been registered anywhere, assuming you can prove your use in commerce was prior to theirs.
Use ® simply when your brand has a current federal registration. Use (tm) or (sm) for your trademark or service marks that have no current federal registrations for the appurtenances or services upon which you are using the brand.

If you lot use the wrong class (e.g., "Single Application") when applying for registration of a work created by a "corporation or LLC", it may be rejected considering registration of a "piece of work for hire" must employ a unlike form (e.g., "Standard Application").
You lot tin be instantly sued for trademark infringement when yous file an application for trademark registration, if you merits it is already in bodily use in commerce, when it creates a likelihood of confusion with any similar brand already in use (on goods or services in commerce) in your field.
If you lot file for registration under an "intent to use", prior users of similar brands may file an "opposition", when the time comes, or may sue you in country or federal court when they have proof that your utilize is infringing upon their prior rights, including your own filing of a "argument of actual employ".
You lot can be sued in country or federal court if you infringe upon someone's "live" trademark in the USA, whether or not their marking has been registered in a state or in the federal USPTO and even if any such registrations have expired.

Well-nigh This Article

Cheers to all authors for creating a folio that has been read 77,922 times.

Did this article help you?