Trademarks vs Copyright vs Patents

Trademark, copyrights, and patents are not the same things. However, Trademark, Copyright, and Patents are often confused to be the same. Although each one is used to safeguard intellectual property rights, they are fundamentally different from each other and used for different purposes.

Copyright law is applicable to people who have developed original work in the field of visual art, performance art, music, literary work, dramatic, movie script and certain another type of intellectual work. The law can be applied to both published and unpublished work, although for a limited period. The law also gives the creator the exclusive right to use and distribute the content from his or her original work. Example: Content written by Chetan Bhagat is exclusively owned by him and cannot be copied by anyone. This was only made possible due to Copyright law.

The patent is another form of intellectual property right, which is granted by a government or licensing authority to the inventor of a product, technology or manufacturing process for a certain duration (usually 20 years), during which the right to produce, sell and use given process or product remains exclusively with the inventor. Example: Android technology is patented by Google, phone technology is patented by Apple.

A trademark is a registered name, logo, mark or symbol that represents the service, product, and goods of a company or an organization. It is a symbol that drives brand loyalty and distinguishes your goods and services from that of your competitors. E.g. Maggi ®, Flipkart®, Google ®.

  1. Copyright - Protects an original artistic or literary work
  2. Patent - Protects an invention
  3. Trademark - Protects brand names and logos used on goods and services.
Do you know under what head you can protect your intellectual property? Our experts are here to help. To know more visit Quick Company.

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