The Key Differences Between Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks

Patents, trademarks and copyrights come from the same fundamental idea and commercial necessity. These are forms of intellectual property that protect the interest of owners and creators. However, these three have certain marked differences.

The first and foremost difference is that the patents protect rights over a tangible or conceptual invention, while the copyrights protect documents or images brought into existence by the author. A trademark, on the contrary, can be a word or a symbolic design that can differentiate products of one company from the others.

The next essential thing that distinguishes patents from others is the high level of protection provided by it due to strict terms and conditions. This implies that any violation of the patent, whether deliberate or not, would lead to prosecution of the person infringing it. Therefore, patents provide higher safety than copyrights and trademarks that permit certain exceptions like fair use etc.

A patent is normally awarded for a span of twenty years, after which it goes into the public domain. On the other hand, copyrights are usually valid for a longer period, for about 60-70 years from development and trademarks carry on for even longer periods. Moreover, patents are more exhaustive and give broader protection than others. Put simply, a copyright protects the mere expression of ideas, whereas patents can safeguard the underlying principles and techniques behind the creation as well.

Finally, since these three kinds of IPR offer different levels of safety for different things, the processes for submitting an application for them are also quite different. For example, the application for a patent needs intricate description of the invention, which is not needed in case of copyrights or trademarks. But, a copyright usually requires a copy of the original work, while a trademark needs a thorough search for existing marks in the market that could lead to confusion.