Whether you’re an inventor, a business owner or a creative, understanding the best way to protect your intellectual property (IP) is important.
Patents, trademarks and copyrights are often brought up when people talk about how they can protect their IP, but most people don’t have enough familiarity with these protections to understand how they are used – or obtained. Here are some basics.
Patents protect inventions and innovations
Do you have a brand new idea – an invention that has never been seen before? Or have you found a unique improvement on something that already exists? A patent gives you exclusive control over what you’ve created for a set number of years (usually 15 to 20) without fear of imitation.
Patents protect inventions and new, useful and non-obvious innovations to existing innovations. They can be related to utility, design or certain asexually reproduced plants.
Trademarks protect your brand identity
Trademarks are symbols, words, phrases and designs – and sometimes even specific colors – that distinguish the source of a set of goods or services from one company from those provided by another. They typically aim to create a brand identity.
Examples of trademarks are “Tiffany box blue,” the distinctive shape of a glass Coke bottle, the Apple logo and slogans like “I’m Lovin’ It” by McDonald’s. Trademarks can continue indefinitely as long as they are in use and renewed every 10 years. They can be essential for creating customer loyalty and avoiding consumer confusion.
Copyrights protect your creative works
Copyrights cover literary works, music, art, film and even software, Copyright is automatic as soon as work is put down in tangible form. Registration is not technically required, but doing so makes it far easier to protect your work against other claims.
Knowing which type of IP protection is right for your work can make it easier to protect what you have. Legal guidance is wise as you proceed.