It doesn't seem to have a proper name. Just circled-c.
The lawyers and contract writers I work with just call it "the copyright symbol." But then they're accustomed to a high syllable density in their speech and writing.
The Victorians wouldn't have left it without a name, would they?
If it becomes more common in vernacular language, you can bet it will acquire one with fewer than six syllables.
I've found some more photographs by Huffman, and none of them have this mark on them,and none are coloured. They are also superb quality and don't look as if they have been cut out of a cowboy book.
I'm no lawyer, but I know that the symbol is not required on every sheet of paper or web page where copyrighted work appears. I believe the principle is something on the order of: we're expected to reasonably assume that something that is obviously the result of significant creativity is copyrighted, and the creator is expected to reasonably not clog the courts with trivial copyright-violation suits (e.g. birthday cake decorations that have already been eaten) if he didn't use it.
It's actually pretty easy to copyright something without paying an attorney's fee. For example, if you write a poem or a song, just put a clean copy in an envelope, send it to yourself by registered mail, and keep the
unopened envelope with the postmark as proof of your creation date claim.
If the symbol was invented in 1952, it is probably copyright itself. © ©
Governments (and the U.N. is treated as a government) do not copyright their creations. In fact except when overridden by security considerations, in most instances their own laws specifically prohibit them from doing so. In the course of my writing career I have created many government documents, and my contracts always stipulate that my work becomes what is known legally as
public record. The taxpayers paid for it, so it belongs to them.
I've worked for a couple of small consulting firms who did not have a legal department and reused templates that a lawyer created on a previous engagement. Their blank document forms contained the words "proprietary and confidential" in the footer. The first time I sent a draft with that language to the client manager, he came storming into my office and gave me a lecture on my responsibility to the citizens who paid my salary. The second time I was proactive and asked the manager if she wanted me to remove the language and inform the consulting firm that they should have deleted it before it got to me. That lady and I subsequently got along very well.
