Differences between Trademark, Copyright and Patent

 

Trademark, Copyright and Patent differ significantly from each other as they are used to protect different types of intellectual property.

 

Trademark

A trademark is generally any recognizable mark such as logos, taglines and brand names, it helps to differentiate and protect the service or products of one company from competitors. The popular examples of trademark include logos, slogans, colors, sounds and designs. For instance, Apple is trademarked for its operating system which is used in all of its mobile phones, tablets, iPod and other devices.

 

It is important to protect the brand as companies have invested a lot of money and time, and they don’t want that their time to get wasted in the end. A trademark is any mark which helps the public to identify and distinguish a product or service of a particular source from its competitors. Whenever services are involved, they are referred to as servicemark and when a brand is made up of words, it is stated as wordmark. Trademarks are denoted by the symbol ‘TM’ and ‘SM’. Trademarks usually expire after 10 years and can be renewed for another 10 years ("Trademarks", 2018).

 

Copyright

Copyright is used to protect original artistic or literary work such as books, sculptures, music, paintings, photographs and videos. Further, Copyright is purchased by artists, architects, authors, choreographers and various other creative professionals. Although, the creative idea is not capable of being Copyrighted, but its tangible form can easily be protected. Definitely, Copyright provides the individual with legal evidence and a notice of ownership, which can be sued in the court against infringement of the copyright. In other words, copyright includes a group of exclusive rights such as adaption, distribution and copying of the work, which is with the owner. Copyright applies to an extensive range of works including dramatic works, sheet music, paintings, sound recordings, maps, computer programs, photographs, and motion pictures. Copyright often lasts for the lifetime of the owner as well as 50 to 70 years after the creator's death (McJohn, 2006).

 

Sometimes, trademarks overlap with copyrights, for instance, a company logo might be registered as Trademark along with the artistic work being registered under Copyright.

 

Patent

A patent is generally used when an individual or organization wants to protect its invention. A holder of the patent can force others to not produce, use, market or even sell the invention for a limited time only. For instance, a business has invented a smart and totally different vacuum cleaner, thus, if one needs to stop others from replicating the design and technology, one must register it under Patent. The primary objective of Patent Law is to encourage innovation and commercialization of technological advancements. The patent rights last for 14 years from the date of the grant. Unlike the creative property which is protected by copyrights or trademarks, the inventions and practical designs can only be protected under a patent ("Trademark, Patent, or Copyright?”, 2018)

 

Besides this, in order to qualify for a patent, one must have an invention which must be nonobvious and novel along with having usefulness. Here, nonobvious means the invention can't be immediately obvious, whereas novel refers to new and not known by anyone else.

 

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