SL copyrights

I suggest a way to copyright certain brand names inworld. Such as a name of a store or certain product. At the moment A product is being sold under a certain name. Now another person is using the same name to give away a product almost exactly like ours but it just looks like crap. People think it's ours and is using it. We are losing buisness. Our buisness is what funds our land. Without our customers, we can't fund the land, and the SL economy in our area will go down, all because someone decided to give away something under a certain name with refusal to change it. What i am suggesting is a way to put down copyrights on objects and names that will certainly be looked at and judged on whether it can be allowed and if it's feasable. A panel will discuss it and if it is feasable, a decree of copyright just for the inworld government and economy will be placed. Anyone using such name or object unless given permission will be warned and/or suspended until such use has been withdrawn.

A name is a "trademark" and is not part of copyright. Providing the following for your reading enjoyment!

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/basic/trade_defin.htm

Hey! This is also the stuff sleepy is made of

A trademark can indeed be part of a copyright but not the other way around.

But the original suggestion is definitely needed.

Until then I suggest perhaps putting up signs or including notecards with all your sale items saying if it is not made by one of the following: <insert members of your team here> it is not the "real deal" as it were.

Actually, here's a way you could do this and make it into a fuller feature request. Many "brands" use groups for their builders and such, right? If LL would allow you to set a GROUP under the "created by" option, and let you choose one of the groups you belong to, that might serve as an effective trademark.... I think....

Does that sound like something that would help? I would think that one would be easy to implement.

What i really want to know is...should i post this as a vote? and if so....will you and more people vote for it?

I'd vote for it.... as would many people, I think.
Not because we particularly like the idea that business owners can have a monopoly on a certain name - I think many SLers are suspicious of business owners.... but rather, I for one would vote for it simply for the sake of clarity.
I *want* to be able to tell who makes what product, and products with identical names confuse me. Therefore, it is in my interest (and the interests of anyone else who is confused by similarly named but very different products) to vote for a measure like this.