Hi Archie,

Wish I was gonna see you and all of my friends in the CC & GTCC at the convention in a few weeks, but I have to miss it for the first time since I found out about the club. I know I said I wasn't gonna be there last year either, and managed to make it for the final day, but that can't happen this year.

To the topic at hand, registering a trademark is different from having anything copyrighted. The laws concerning copyrights and copywrites have been changing since the inception of the internet, but not by much in substance. If you publish, your work is copyrighted as I understand it. The keyword is publish. Publicly making available information and/or images on the internet is (IMO) publishing said works or items. That would render all said items as copyrighted or copywritten. A registered trademark need not ever see the light of day. Anyone can trademark a logo (using your ma bell example) by paying the fee.

JB, I think you have been wronged, and our judicial system would prove us both right if you should ever choose to make it an issue with the magazine that stole your images and valuations!

Bob