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Copyright protects the creative works of writers -- for everything from blogs to poems to novels to screenplays. Literary works can and should be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. There used to be a myth that writings could be protected by mailing them to yourself. This is silly and not true. It is easy and relatively inexpensive to register Copyright at the U.S. Copyright Office using the online Electonic Copyright Office (ECo).
A writer, publisher, or editor can register a trademark on their name or the name or logo of their company. This can be very tricky, though, since the US Trademark Office requires these services to be provided "for others." For example, if a publisher is publishing mainly books they have authored themselves, they cannot register a service trademark as a publisher, but they may be able to register a goods trademark on the books. There are many rules, so you should have a Trademark lawyer advise you and prosecute your trademarks. Trademark is complex and is not a do-it-yourself activity.
Contracts are frequently used in the Writing world -- whenever the writer's work is used in a magazine or published as a book or optioned by a producer to be made into a movie. Always have a lawyer work on these contracts.
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Photo by Charlota Blunarova on Unsplash