A partnership and watermarks

momo3boys

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I am in an interesting situation. I have been mentored by a great man and photographer who has been paid for his work either for modeling, weddings, nature etc since 1960. He has asked me to be a 'partner' with him. I have worked as an assistant for the last four years and he has watched me grow as a photographer and an editor. Because he is a bit 'old fashioned' he has never had a website or much marketing. He also has never watermarked his pictures. He operates under the name 'PictureImages', but this is not a copyrighted name. When I watermark pictures can I just water mark 'PictureImages' or do I need to watermark with our names? If I need a name, whose do I use? We each take about half the pictures but I do all the 'editing'. When I am uploading pics on the website I am making I want them to be safe, but I'm not sure how it all works. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
 
This is something you need to discuss with your partner.
 
I highly recommend learning about US federal copyright. www.copyright.gov

Any photos he tripped the shutter for, he exclusively owns the copyright to, even if you subsequently edited them - unless the two of you have a contract that says otherwise.
By the same token, any photo you trip the shutter for, you own exclusive copyright to - unless the two of you have a contract that says otherwise.

He operates under the name 'PictureImages', but this is not a copyrighted name.
Yep. It's not copyrighted because names can't be copyrighted, but they can be trademarked.

U.S. Copyright Office - What Does Copyright Protect? (FAQ)
Can I copyright the name of my band?
No. Names are not protected by copyright law. Some names may be protected under trademark law. Contact the
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 800-786-9199, for further information.
Also see - http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf

Here in the US a photo does not need to have a watermark of copyright statement to be copyrighted. The author (photographer) of the work, exclusively owns the copyright as soon as the work is recorded in a tangible medium.

A watermark is essentially just advertising. However the US Copyright Office does have specific requirements for a copyright statement in this PDF: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

You may also want to note that the US is a signator of the Berne Convention, along with 140+ other countries, and some additional wording - All Rights Reserved - are needed to have waht is essentially global copyright protection.

Here in the US copyright is not really enforcable unless the copyright hjas been registered with the US Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ40.pdf
Also see - http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.pdf section 411.
 
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I'll add my two cent's worth, but not about copyright or photography.

Before you shake hands on everything and start operating as a partnership I strongly recommend you draw up a partnership agreement and each of you have it reviewed independently. Partnerships work just great when there is a small but reasonable amount of money coming in. Things start to go south when the money gets tight for any reason, and they will really blow apart if ever any ridiculous amounts of money start coming in.

Get some professional advice as to how to structure the partnership. There could be some liability issues you did not foresee or are not prepared for if you go into this uninformed.

When casually asked about partnerships by my students I almost always answer "Don't Do It !" (unless you know what you are doing).
 
Thanks, that explains a lot! So in layman's terms, if I understand this correctly, just the copyright symbol and "picture images" would work, or do I just leave the symbol off? I see people do both and for the customers sake it's less confusing than seeing two different names on the pictures.

I'm not worried about the partnership. But I totally understand where you're coming from. I have been working with him in a few different areas as well as photography and he has been nothing but generous. Even paying me my salary when he didn't have enough for his! He is a rare individual indeed.
 
Use a watermark for both sets of images, but have some subtle difference in them so you can distinguish yours from his. i.e. shortened cross on a "T" or an oval shaped period dotting an "i" or some other small indistinguishable mark that only you two would recongize. I do something similar with photos I watermark so I can tell if they are pilfered from my site or ones I have allowed.
 
I'm not worried about the partnership. But I totally understand where you're coming from. I have been working with him in a few different areas as well as photography and he has been nothing but generous. Even paying me my salary when he didn't have enough for his! He is a rare individual indeed.

If anything that should give you even more reason to want to draw up an official partnership agreement; to ensure that both sides are fully understanding the situation, but also to protect both of you against any possible legal or personal conflicts that might arise; these might well arise out of a situation neither of you currently envisions and would aim to minimise the damage done to either party in such an eventuality.


As for the watermark small differences between the two won't make much notice to the public "TDphotos and tdphotos" whilst different won't register as different photographers to the average person (just taking the above example as a guideline). Personally I would say that whilst working together if you're working under a trading name/company name put that on the watermark along with the site address - that way your watermark is showing your copyright to dissuade theft and also showing your webaddress - giving you free marketing should the photo be copied and pasted or even just shown on other websites.
 

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