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purchase a book, you only own that particular copy, and have not purchased the
copyrights to the book itself. This means you cannot make copies of the book and
distribute them, or otherwise infringe the copyright owner’s rights. Likewise, even
though a picture or video clip may be publicly available on the Internet, you cannot
copy and use them.

As soon as a nonprofit corporation’s employee creates an original work, the
nonprofit corporation has a copyright in it – nothing more needs to be done.

Trademarks

Trademarks are logos, business or product names, tag lines, or other items
that identify the source of origin for a good. Similarly, a service mark is like a
trademark except that it identifies the source of origin for a particular service rather
than a particular good. For ease of discussion, any reference to “trademarks” in this
Part will mean both trademarks and service marks. A nonprofit corporation has a
potential claim against any third-party that subsequently uses the same or similar
trademark in such a way that consumers are likely to be confused between the
nonprofit corporation and such third-party, and/or their respective goods or
services. Since every nonprofit corporation probably has one or more trademarks,
a more detailed explanation of trademarks is set forth in the subsequent following
Chapter.

Trade Secrets

A trade secret is any information that derives economic value from not being
known (e.g., product formulas, detailed information on suppliers or customers,

ways of doing business, etc.). A nonprofit corporation has a potential claim against
a third-party that acquires or uses its trade secret without consent. In order to
show that something is a trade secret, a nonprofit corporation must show that the
information was secret and that reasonable efforts were made to keep it secret.
Donor or other unique organizational mailing lists could be protected as a trade
secret. Such efforts will probably include having employees and contractors sign a
confidentiality agreement (sample confidentiality agreements available online at
https://wayfindlegal.org/tools/legal/).

Publicity Rights

Washington, as well as various other states, allow an individual to prevent
others from using his or her name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, or other
personally identifiable characteristics. These are often referred to as “Publicity

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