Copyrights and Trademarks

Our Trademarks

TOPS Learning Systems, TOPS Ideas, TOPScience, TOPScope, our TOPS paper clip logo, and our lumpy TOPS peoplet characters are all service marks, trademarks, and/or the trade dress of TOPS Learning Systems, Inc.

Our Website Copyright

All rights reserved. Our copyright applies to all content on this website including text, illustrations, and trademarks. Permission is granted to print or photocopy single or multiple copies of any page on this website if, and only if, content meets both of the following conditions:

  1. All reproductions of TOPS activities must bear our legible copyright notice and web address (if any), and be unaltered in content. Student lessons may be separated from the teaching notes for classroom use, as long as the copyright remains attached and legible.
  2. Reproductions may only be disseminated to teachers and/or students for use in the home or classroom, or in teacher workshops for the purpose of promoting and advertising the products of TOPS Learning Systems.

Any other use of materials on this website not specified above, including reproduction for commercial sale or profit, unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, republication, or any other dissemination, electronic or printed, is strictly prohibited without prior permission from TOPS Learning Systems.

Our Book Copyrights

TOPS is a small, non-profit, cottage industry, and our ongoing survival depends upon users honoring our copyright restrictions and compensating us for real value received. To this end, the intent of our copyright is this: any one book may be used by any one teacher (or one classroom) in any one school year. Please observe the guidelines that fit your circumstances:

Teachers: Any original purchaser of a TOPS publication has our permission to make copies for your own personal use for as long as you teach. To stay within the intent of our copyright restrictions, we request that you do not give, sell, or trade a book to others without fair use fees paid to TOPS.

Homeschoolers: You are an important part of TOPS' financial base, and we thank you. Your purchases of new books will help us keep them available for children everywhere. And because we recognize that each book serves fewer students, we request smaller fair use fees. If you have obtained used books for free or on the cheap, you are still bound by the intent of our copyrights.

Schools and Districts: For each TOPS publication you purchase, you have our permission to assign its use to ONE teacher (or one classroom) in any school year, for the life of the institution. To stay within the intent of our copyright restrictions, we request that two or more teachers (or classrooms) using the same TOPS title in the same school year use two or more purchased copies, or employ our discounted licenses to copy.

Workshops and Teacher Training Programs: Please do not allow participating teachers to take away copies of TOPS lessons for their own teaching use without fair use fees paid to TOPS.