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Monday, May 9, 2011

Copyrighting Your Menu


Once you finish creating the perfect restaurant menu design to capture the mood of your establishment, it's always a good idea to consider copywriting your design. This can be especially important if you have created customized artwork or logos or created signature dishes that have unique names you want to be associated solely with your restaurant.

Copyrighting the menu provides you with protection from any portion of it being copied or reproduced without your written consent. If your menu is copyrighted, you may be eligible to sue for statutory damages and attorney's fees should you discover someone is reproducing your work without your permission.

It sounds like a complicated process, but obtaining a copyright can be as easy as putting a menu cover on your newly designed masterpiece.

To begin the process, you can go to http://www.copyright.gov/ and fill out an application. The current application fee is $35 and it will normally take about four weeks for you to receive your certification once the copyright is approved.

Once the copyright is approved, you will need to add the copyright registration information to your menu, preferably on the first or second page.  That information is as follows:

    1.    The copyright symbol: © (hold down CTRL + ALT and then press C on most PC's) or the word                   "copyright."     
   
    2.    The year your copyright certification was approved.
  
    3.    Your name or the company's name.

For example: © 2011 TheMenuShop.com