The Key Differences Between Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks
Patents, copyrights and trademarks are various aspects of the same central idea. They are different types of intellectual property that secure the interests of the owner of an invention or creation. However, there are a lot of key differences between the three.
One of the important differences is the fact that the patents essentially secure the tangible or conceptual inventions, while copyrights secure literary, artistic or other such works. In case of trademarks, there is no requirement for something original or innovative and they can just be a word or even a symbol that separates a brand or firm from others.
Secondly, patents are the most effective forms of intellectual property, particularly because they are guided by strict rules and regulations. This means that any violation of the patent, whether deliberate or not, would lead to prosecution of the violator. Thus patents provide greater safety against infringement, while copyright and trademarks provide for fair use and other exceptions.
A patent is usually awarded for a period of 20 years, after which it goes into the public domain. On the other hand, trademarks continue for an infinite time period while copyrights are usually valid for 60-70 years from the date of creation of that work. Moreover, patents have the ability to protect your creation in a much more comprehensive way. Patents safeguard not only the expression of ideas like copyrights do but they also protect the principles and mechanisms applied in a particular invention.
Finally, the procedures for submitting an application for these different legal mechanisms are also quite different from each other. For example, the application for a patent has to have an appropriate disclosure of the product, whereas the one for copyright needs enclosing a copy of the original work itself, and the one for trademark simply needs an appropriate check for confusingly similar marks that already exist.
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