How to Protect Your Content as a Creator
(Copyright, Trademark, & Contracts Explained)
When content creation starts as a hobby or a passion project, you may not realize you’re growing an asset until it starts getting attention. What if you just want to bring someone else in to help? A co-host, a collaborator, or a friend who’s just helping out?
What if a company wants to license your workshop, or a publisher wants your book? Most creators don’t think about protecting their work until someone else wants a piece of it, and by then it can be too late.
This week, I had a conversation with the knowledgeable entertainment attorney Michele Martell. She has spent her career protecting intellectual property for creators and major entertainment properties—including work in the Jim Henson/Muppets universe.
We delved into the complex world of copyrights and trademarks from both sides: how you can protect what you create and avoid getting into trouble by using others’ content.
Protect What You Build:
What Happens When a “Side Project” Becomes A " Monetizable Asset”?
Imagine you start a podcast out of your living room as a passion project.
Then, the surprising thing happens. It actually blows up.
Not just “a few thousand downloads” blows up. You’re receiving calls from publishing houses to see if there’s a book in the works. A producer thinks it could be a show. Brands are sliding into your inbox to sponsor an episode.
Exciting, right?! It should be. But here’s the catch that almost nobody thinks about until it's too late: somewhere between “creating content for fun” and "owning an actual asset,” you were supposed to start protecting it. And if you brought in outside help without putting anything in writing, you may not “own” as much of that asset as you think.
The Common Pitfalls When Sharing the Load:
The moment someone else starts helping you build your thing (a co-host, a friend who helps script an episode, or a collaborator who jumps in), you’ve entered all-new legal territory that most creators never think to formalize.
No agreement = accidental co-ownership. If a collaborator contributes creative work without signing anything beforehand, they may become a legal co-author. (Regardless of whose idea it was or whose name is on it.)
Joint owners don’t need your permission. A co-owner can license or sell the work on their own with or without your consent. All you’d get out of it is a share of what they make from the deal.
Avoid saying the words “We’ll figure it out later.” Entering such a casual relationship like this is how ownership gets lost. An agreement needs to exist before the work starts.
A simple email can be enough. Protecting your work and your idea can be as easy as sending an email. All you may need is something in writing that spells out who owns what.
Sharing money isn’t the same as sharing ownership. With a true co-host/collaborator, you can structure it as a profit split instead of joint ownership, fairly compensating them and keeping control of what you’ve built.
How Can You Avoid Losing Your Own Name?
The imposter syndrome trap is real. And this causes many small creators to feel like it's the wrong time.
“Wherever you are is the time to do the thing.”
The reality is you’re never too early or too late to start protecting your name. There's a much bigger risk in waiting to file than filing right away. A bigger company can beat you to your own name, even if you’ve used it for years. Without registration, you’re not protected just because you used it first.
Even though registering carries a cost anywhere from $300-$550 to pay the trademark office to $1,500 to hire a lawyer, it’s worth it.
What if You Want to Pitch Work to Another Company But You’re Afraid They’ll Steal Your Idea?
If you’re pitching your idea to a company, now may be the time to register a copyright. But what if you’re just sending a short overview document? In that case, you may not be giving away enough substance in those pages anyway.
What about when it comes time to sign a contract with the company?
Contracts should separate what you’ve already owned (pre-existing IP) from what gets created specifically for that company in the deal. This allows the company to own exactly what they paid for, while you can keep your underlying concepts, materials, or the right to build derivative versions.
Or, if you’re not creating anything new for the company, then they’re receiving a license to use your creation for a defined period of time, laid out contractually.
Big companies usually use broad, one-size-fits-all contract language that claims more than it should. This is when you can come in and scrutinize the contract to know what you’re actually agreeing to and avoid giving anything up that you shouldn't have to.
Avoiding Trouble with Others’ Content:
Can “I Only Used It For a Few Seconds” Protect You?
The best part about copyright registration is that it’s cheap ($65), easy, and you can do it yourself.
It Gives You Two Powers:
You don’t have to prove actual damages or show that someone’s infringement cost a specific dollar amount.
There are statutory damages available of up to $30k for unintentional violations, plus the ability to have your legal fees covered.
So, when you use someone’s registered photograph and they demand payment of $8k for example, usually you should pay them (or get stuck paying $30k plus legal fees.)
That’s a massive amount of leverage for just a $65 filing fee.
Even if you just used it “on your website,” copyright holders don’t need to show it caused real financial harm. If you used registered work without their permission, you’re exposed.
How Does AI Make Everything More Complicated?
The goal behind copyright and patent law is to protect human effort. It exists to give people the benefit of the time and labor they’ve put into creating something.
Does that mean all AI use is strictly forbidden by the Copyright Office? Not exactly. When you submit a registration, there’s a place to disclose whether AI was used, which can then be evaluated case-by-case to determine how it was used.
What’s the difference between acceptable and unacceptable AI use?
Unacceptable: You prompt AI to create something and it generates the entire output.
Acceptable: You were the creator, and you used AI only as a tool to work from your own idea, script, storyboard, or sketch.
The more you can show that you’ve directed the shaping and output of your creation, the stronger your claim to authorship is.
There’s a “bonus” risk to using AI:
AI models are trained on scraped, often unlicensed content. The AI-generated output itself may carry unresolved licensing issues.
Why “Fair Use” is Trickier Than it Seems:
What constitutes fair use is decided case by case, in court.
People often think using only a few seconds of a song, for example, is automatically protected. (It’s not.) Fair use broadly covers things like education, news, and historical commentary.
The more commercial, the weaker the defense. Using someone's painting on a T-shirt and selling thousands of them is very different from posting an image with a genuine commentary attached to it. The second is more likely to be treated as fair use because it’s closer to newsworthy/expressive than commercial exploitation.
The Bottom Line
Staying protected is much easier when you think ahead. Whether you’re looking to bring in some help for your podcast or you want to know what you’re actually allowed to use from someone else's content, it always pays to get ahead of the problem before it comes back to bite you.
Michele and I go into all of this in much more detail in my podcast. Click to watch the full episode.
Life is legal, so you've got to know the rules.
“Don’t build your empire on something you don’t own.”
🎙️ Listen to this episode of Life Is Legal wherever you get your podcasts. If you found it helpful, leave a review, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs to know this stuff.
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This post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws vary by state and situation. For advice specific to your circumstances, consult a licensed attorney in your area.
