Why Copyright?
We are still fairly new to the small business game, but one thing we wanted to do from the start was to invest in copyright (and/or trademark if that was feasible). We had witnessed time and time again with cultural appropriation - BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) creatives create amazing things, only for another person, not belonging to that culture, swoop in and repackage.
One example fresh in mind is a New York company using Hawaiian quilt patterns and selling it at an astronomical price - against the wishes of the family and vocal Hawaiians (as well as blocking any who vehemently spoke out against it).
History is cyclical. Humans are consistent. So it was important to us to take the time to look into protecting our artwork and other pieces. In a quick summary: we took the time to reflect inward, chat with our nearest and dearest mentors, and decided it was in our best interest to copyright our work.
We wrestled with the icky part of copyright: were we copyrighting ʻike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge) and moʻolelo (stories/history)? And a couple of mentors reminded us that no, you aren’t. You cite your sources, you acknowledge the moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) of your ʻike, and the part that you are copyrighting, are your actual designs, your actual artwork, etc.
So why copyright? Because we wanted to protect our creations. We wanted to have the necessary receipts if anyone tried to repackage our work - aka culturally appropriate it. We wanted the peace of mind that we covered all our bases for our small business.
What was our process?
When we first launched our business, we didn’t feel the need to copyright right then and there for our sticker designs. But, we were doing the research to find out who we would go with when we were ready to copyright. It started with a simple Google search, which led us to reading biographies of different lawyers and about pages of different law firms. We were looking for someone who specialized in copyright and trademark.
We came across a kanaka lawyer who worked for a larger firm. We reached out to see if they were available to meet and help us through the copyright process. Unfortunately, that particular person was busy, but, their mentor ended up taking on our case. Our first conversation focused on asking questions about the process, associated costs, and the option for them to train us to copyright so we could do it on our own down the line.
We had found our fit and we were ecstatic!
We began with creating an account at copyright.gov/registration
We then decided to register our work to our LLC. We had to make sure we had all our different versions ready to go.
We added copyrights to all our interactive, digital and hard copy planners.
After we paid and filed, the copyright went into effect on the date we filed.
Costs:
Copyright: $65 per filing
Lawyer: $350 per hour, with about 2.5 hours spent together
However, we didn’t receive the official paper work until a couple months later.
We’re grateful for our lawyer that taught us how to file for ourself because we’ve been able to protect all our creations. We still struggle with copyrights - it feels funky. But we know it’s important to pale (protect) ourself, especially from cultural appropriation.