| The nature of athletic training is one
of innovation, problem solving, often making due with available resources and educational
imagination. Out of this realm comes many people who perhaps see something missing and
attempt to develop an idea or create a product. Creation includes educational mediums to
instruct students, coaches, athletes and the community. Have you ever had what you believe to be an original idea and
wondered if you could or needed to do something to protect your idea. Since you weren't
sure and since you got busy, it probably just never got done.
Original does not have to be profound! You can
copyright a form that you use, an educational booklet that you created for your coaches or
an instructional idea you use with your student athletic trainers. A copyright protects
the original part of what you do; that is, you do not need to develop the entire idea of
athlete information sheets, but the form/method/medium/style you utilize may be original
enough for you to lay claim to. A copyright does not require a certain level of quality to
have been achieved. It is not based on how well you create something, rather it is based
on the fact that you did indeed create something or some format which is original.
According to Copyright Basics, Circular R1
from the Copyright Office in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., "copyright
is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of
'original works of authorship' including literary, dramatic, musical artistic and certain
other intellectual works."
Examples of accepted material for copyrights which I registered include:
Student
Athletic Trainer - the board game. While board games are certainly not
new, this specific game, was new.
SportsCARE videos. This was my attempt to
break into the television market with short, specific segments related to various areas of
athletic training. For example, one 30 seconds clip was on heat and fluid replacement. The
information was not original, but the SportsCARE
format was.
SportsCARE brochures. Same idea, same
information, same title as the videos except, by writing a series of brochures, a
different forum was provided.
Student Trainer Aptitude Test. The idea of
testing students' knowledge certainly cannot be possessed by any one athletic trainer.
However, the "package" of testing can be determined to be original. I created a
series of questions and offered the test as a competition on a statewide basis. To protect
this format, not the knowledge since I could not "own" the knowledge, I obtained
a copyright.
The High School Athletic Training Program: A "How
To" Guide. When you self-published a book, you should take the time
to file for a copyright. This will protect the forum that your work is in, not the
information. Original ideas should be filed separately for their own copyright. This
self-published work was later published commercially under a different title and received
its own copyright.
Practice Safe Sports. The idea of speaking
to each of your teams about practices of health, stretching, eating and injury care that
you would like each of them to utilize is nothing new. However, the "delivery"
system may be. I wrote a separate double sided paper for each of my sports such as Practice Safe Sports - Basketball, Practice Safe Sports -
Gymnastics, which I give to the athletes on that team and their parents at
the beginning of the season. The same information in an original package makes it unique.
A Self-Appraisal Checklist for the Position of
Interscholastic Athletic Trainer. This example is one of my best to
demonstrate original works. I created a "score card" for working high school
athletic trainers and schools wishing to create the position. By answering and scoring
questions, the school is able to arrive at a score. The higher the score the
"better" the position, facilities and related structure. You may be asking,
"Who are you to decide what a perfect score of 100 should be"? This is a good
question. First, I asked several colleagues and athletic directors and second, a copyright
is given for "originality" with no attempt to determine who is entitled to make
any statement. |
You may be asking yourself now,
"how do I go about registering this idea, form, educational tool, book, etc. which I
have had for a while now"? There is a simple form which you can obtain from the
Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. Registration costs twenty dollars for each work.
Different ideas may require different forms to be filed, so call the Copyright Office at
(202) 707-9100, write them at Register of Copyrights, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C. 20559 or contact them online at http://www.loc.gov/copyright
Good luck! Keep the ideas flowing! |
