by Joseph Hazelbaker

Created on: January 18, 2009

Differentiating patent, trademark and copyright law is straightforward once you know the categories of creations each segment of law protects. Patent law protects inventions, trademark law protects commercial identities, and copyright law protects literary and artistic works. Together, we call this legal protection Intellectual property law.

PATENTS

In the United States, a patent is a property right granted by the federal government for an invention of a mechanical nature that allows the inventor to exclude others from making or selling the same invention.

There are three types of patents:

1) Utility Patent, which, in the words of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covers " any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof";

2) Design Patent, which covers any original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture;

3) Plant Patent, which covers any new and distinct variety of plant the inventor can asexually produce.

Each of these patents protects an original idea that can be implemented or produced physically. Patents are the only form of intellectual property protection that must first be granted by government by the submittal and approval of a detailed application. An application for a patent is submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and, once issued, protects the inventor for twenty years.

TRADEMARKS

Like patents, trademarks are also issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Unlike patents, you don't have to apply for trademark protection. While the application process can remove any doubt about the legitimacy of a mark (e.g. does someone else already use it), all one has to do to invoke trademark protection is to use the recognizable symbols ("TM", "SM", and ) alongside the mark they wish to protect.

As stated in the opening paragraph, a trademark protects a commercial identity. In other words, a trademark is a symbol, name, word, phrase or device used in conjunction with a product or service that identifies the source of that product or service. For example, a shoe with the word "Nike" or the well-known "swoosh" identifies that shoe as a product of the Nike Corporation.

Unlike a patent, a trademark protects the maker's identity, not the product. So, anyone can make a tennis shoe, for example, they just can't make the tennis shoe and put the "swoosh" or word "Nike" on it.

Of course, you don't have to be a large company to benefit from trademark protection,

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