Trademark, Patent, and Copyright: What's the difference?
Our Color Vowel® Trademark
The phrase "Color Vowel" is our brand name. To protect our brand (and to prevent others from using our brand in ways that might distort our message or reputation), we have trademarked our brand and our logo with the US Patent and Trademark Office. That "®" symbol you see verifies that our trademark is on file with the USPTO.
- Anytime you refer to Color Vowel® in writing, use the ® symbol.
- Only licensed partners may display the Color Vowel/ELTS logo.
Our Color Vowel® Patent
Color Vowel® holds a patent for the audiovisual cueing system embedded in our game, Color it Out!, designed into our app, Blue Canoe®, and formalized in the techniques that comprise the Color Vowel® Approach.
- A patent license is required of any individual or organization that wishes to integrate our patented system in their published (print or digital) instructional materials.
- If you plan to publish or distribute your work for use beyond your own classroom, contact us about licensing options.
Our Color Vowel® Copyright
The Color Vowel® Chart is a unique graphic image with key word phrases that provide English learners and teachers with an accurate, efficient way to explore the vowel sounds of English. Karen Taylor and Shirley Thompson, authors of the Color Vowel® Chart, copyrighted their work in order to protect how their life's work is used and represented. ELTS is the exclusive administrator of Color Vowel® trademark and copyright licensing.
- Anytime you include an image of the Chart in your own work, you must include attribution.
- If you wish to include the Color Vowel® Chart in a book, article, or other work, contact us about licensing options.
- Modifying the Color Vowel® Chart or making your own version of the Chart for distribution is a violation of our copyright.
Creative Commons Licensing: Educators, you'll love this!
Color Vowel® images, including the Color Vowel® Chart and our Color Vowel® Anchor Images, are licensed for educational use and other creative purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
What does CC-BY-NC-ND mean?
CC = Creative Commons: this is just one of the kinds of licensing we offer; it is well-suited to individual teachers who wish to use our images in their instructional materials. Creative Commons licensing means consistently following all of the stipulations shown below (BY, NC, and ND).- BY = Attribution: You must give explicit written and/or verbal credit to Color Vowel and its authors so that your audience knows how to find us and learn more. See our ready-to-use attribution examples below.
- NC = Non-Commercial: Using Color Vowel® images for classroom use (within your course or courses) falls within the stipulations of Creative Commons licensing. Commercial licensing options are available for individuals and organizations aiming to include Color Vowel® on their website, in promotional materials, in textbooks, in instructional software, or other published media.
- ND = No Derivatives: You may not distribute modified versions of the Color Vowel® Chart or any of our images.
In a nutshell: You may use Color Vowel® images with your students and in your teaching materials, both in print and online, so long as you make no changes to the materials, give appropriate credit to the authors and publisher, and remain non-commercial in your use/distribution of the images.
Contact us if you wish to include the Color Vowel® brand, the Color Vowel® Chart image, or Color Vowel® anchor images in a commercial publication or other work for commercial distribution, or if you need help understanding what constitutes commercial use.
Providing attribution: Three practical steps for success
Planning to present at a professional conference? Delivering a talk to your colleagues? Making a short informational video?
Keep these tips in mind as you spread the word:
- Say it. The first time you show people the Color Vowel® Chart during a given presentation, acknowledge its name and its authors. Say something like “The Color Vowel Chart, originally created by Karen Taylor and Shirley Thompson in 1999, is a visual organizer for spoken English. Here’s how it works.” Saying something like this is extremely important, as it honors our work and helps others understand that the Color Vowel Chart is copyright protected.
- Show it. Yes, you can display the Chart in your presentation! Just be sure to include written attribution in your slide show and handouts which is accompanied by explicit verbal credit once again, something like “To learn more about the Color Vowel® Chart, please visit ColorVowel.com. They sell Color Vowel® teaching materials and provide advanced training on the Color Vowel® Chart which I myself have done and highly recommend.” A statement like this makes viewers aware of our Color Vowel® training and certification program.
- Write it. Make sure that “Color Vowel®” and “Color Vowel® Chart” always appear with the ® trademark symbol and are written in full — not as “Vowel Chart” or as “the CVC” (which is easily confused with the widely known “consonant-vowel-consonant” reference to syllable structure). If you need an abbreviated way to refer to “Color Vowel,” you can use “CV” followed by the noun that it modifies; for example, CV Chart, CV Anchor Images, CV Approach.
