LETS TALK ABOUT COPYRIGHT AND MEMORIAL DESIGNS

Copyright law protects creative expression in many forms: books, music, sculpture and paintings are all protected by copyright law.

DESIGNS. Creative designs are also protected by copyright law. Designs are used on book covers, advertising, graphic art, websites and on countless other ways. Mark H. Bott Company specializes in creative designs for granite memorials. Regardless of the medium, however, copyright protects designs.

EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS. Copyright law gives the owner of a design the exclusive right to make copies of the design. Copyright law also gives the owner of a design the exclusive right to adapt the design and make new designs based on it. These are called “derivative works.” Therefore, Mark H. Bott Company has the exclusive right to duplicate its creative designs (in any medium) and the exclusive right to use them to make new designs.

PUBLIC ACCESS. Mark H. Bott Company does NOT lose its copyrights in a creative design when a memorial is sold or placed in a cemetery, or when it is shown in Mark H. Bott Company literature, brochures or catalogs. Nor do we lose copyrights when it is published on our website. Public access to a copyrighted work does NOT cancel the copyright and put the design into the “public domain”.

INFRINGEMENT. Because the rights of a copyright owner are exclusive, anyone who duplicates a design or uses a copyrighted design to make a “new design” without the permission of the copyright owner has infringed this copyright. Anyone who participates in a copyright infringement can be liable; and neither innocent intent nor ignorance is a defense. Those who chose to infringe on a copyrighted work are subject to seizure or infringed work, monetary damages, payment of all attorney’s fees of the owner, and in some cases, even criminal prosecution.

Mark H. Bott Co. is the exclusive owner of all copyright, trademark rights and all other intellectual property rights in and to the artwork that appears on memorials and headstones (throughout this website) that it fabricates and sales, including the right to create derivative works of such artwork.

You may contact us for permission to create direct works of our memorials.