The Difference Between Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks

It would be easy to be confused about copyrights, patents, and trademarks. While each is a kind of intellectual property protection, they each serve distinct purposes for very specific types of intellectual property.

What are copyrights?
Everyone has heard of copyright or copyright protection, but not many people understand what it is. Copyright is a form of protection provided for "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. This means that a writer's, composers, authors, and other types of artists work can be protected. Copyright protection translates into ownership protection. If you created some form of artistic expression, even though it is not as tangible as a car, you own it. And, this expression can extend to designs of cars, computer programs, and even glassware.

You can create copyright protection in various ways, but one of the most common is registering your "original work" with your countries copyright office. In the United States, the office is a division of the Library of Congress.

What are patents and trademarks?
Patents protect the property rights of inventors. Issued by the Patent and Trademark Office, patents are complicated detailed applications which illustrations and explanations of the invention. In the United States, a patent's term is 20 years from the date the application is filed and only limits that actions of potential infringers within the United States, its territories and possessions.

We you see a logo for your clothes or the bottling for your favorite soda, you are looking at a trademark. When you see the design on the package for your favorite cleaners, you are looking at a special type of trademark, called a service mark. Trademarks and servicemarks are those words, names, symbols or other devices (specifically from designs) that distinguish the sources of goods and services. With trademark protection, an owner is making sure that others don't make or sell good similar in look to their own. Trademark is a protection that reduces confusion in the marketplace. And, just like patents, in the United States, trademarks are registered with the United States Trademark and Patent Office.

What does each specifically protect and how?
When you consider the distinctions between copyright, patent and trademark, you may think that its not confusing. But, the primary distinction rests in the item protected, and in some instances there may be overlapping protections.

Copyright protects things such as books, photos, drawings, music, screenplays, poetry compilations, and even sculptures. Patent protects inventions and innovations and sometimes engineering processes. Trademarks protect logos, packages, slogans, and even special packaging designs

Since these different forms of intellectual property protection are designed to protect specific items, their protection is limited. For example, if you have written a slogan for your company, you may be confused about which protection is best suited for this type of intellectual property. Names or short phrases are not generally protected by copyright. However, a short phrase may be associated with an ad, celebrity or company. Those short phrases can be better protected by trademarks. What if you have an image, which is also a work of art and indicia of your company's identity? Copyright and trademark both may be appropriate protections.

The registration processes of copyrights, trademarks and patents are different. They each require varying fees and documentation. For copyrights, fees are generally low and some applications can be completed online. For trademark and patents, the fees are substantially higher and the process is more detailed, because of the check and balance system in place. New patents and trademarks are checked against existing patents and trademarks. If there are items that are too similar, a new patent and trademark application could be denied.

Copyright protection is more of an administrative process. Trademark and patent application processes are more contentious. In the event there is infringement, the stakes for damages are higher for patents and trademarks.

Copyrights, patents, and trademarks are types of intellectual property protections, and sometimes, protecting your artistic expressions, inventions, and logos can get confusing. Knowing what each is, can help creative folks to defend their ownership rights and the use of their property.

For more information about copyrights, patents and trademarks, you can check out useful books, such as Elias and Stim's Patent, Copyright and Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference, at your local library or bookstore. For additional information, check out the following websites:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/whatis.htm

http://www.copyright.gov/

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmlaw2.pdf

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+35USC261