People sometimes use words like copyright, patent or trademark interchangeably. They know that all of these words refer to different ways to protect intellectual property, and they just assume that these terms generally mean the same thing.
But that’s a problematic assumption to make because these are actually very different terms that protect very different types of intellectual property. Below is a quick rundown of how this works.
Trademarks
If you need to trademark something, it’s a mark or an identifier. This may be a design, a phrase or even a single word. It helps consumers to identify your brand or distinguish the products and services that you make from your competition.
Patents
A patent, on the other hand, is for some type of invention. Maybe you have invented a new pharmaceutical drug, for example, or developed a new type of complicated machinery. You’re using the patent so that someone else cannot steal your invention and begin selling those products themselves.
Copyright
You will typically use a copyright for a creative product. This could include a song, a movie or a novel that you wrote. Paintings and photographs may also be copyrighted. In some cases, this can even apply to things like computer code or other digital files.
Which one do you need?
All of these protections can be helpful, depending on the specifics of your situation. It’s just important to know what types of legal tools you can use, how they apply to your company or your products and what legal steps to take to get everything set up correctly. It can help to consult with an experienced law firm at this time, as intellectual property law is very complex.