What Distinguishes Patents From Trademarks And Copyrights?
Patents, trademarks and copyrights come from the same fundamental idea and legal necessity. They are various kinds of intellectual property that protect the interests of the owner of an invention or creation. However, there are a number of key differences between the three.
The primary difference is that the type of rights provided by patents is for a tangible or conceptual invention, while that provided by a copyright is for a creative document, or image created by the author. In case of trademarks, there is no need for something new or novel and they can simply be a word or even a logo that distinguishes a brand or company from others.
Secondly, patents have strictly defined liabilities, which offer the maximum protection against any sort of infringement. This implies that any violation of the patent, whether deliberate or not, would lead to prosecution of the person infringing it. Hence, patents provide a lot more protection than other types of intellectual property rights without any scope for considerations like fair use and other such provisions.
A patent is usually valid for 20 years and then it moves from exclusive ownership of the owner, to the public domain availability of the idea. Copyrights, on the other hand are normally given for 60-70 years, and trademarks do not cease to exist even for centuries if you want. Further, patents can protect your intellectual property interests in a very stringent manner. In other words, a copyright protects the mere expression of ideas, on the other hand, patents can safeguard the underlying processes and ideas behind the invention as well.
Lastly, the processes for submitting an application for these different legal mechanisms are also quite different from each other. For instance, the application for a patent has to have an appropriate disclosure of the product, whereas the one for copyright needs attaching a copy of the work itself, and the one for trademark simply needs an appropriate check for similar marks in the market.
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Tags: Business, business idea protection, ideas protection, Intellectual property, IP law, IP lawyer, Patents, protecting business ideas, trademarks
