How to Know if you Need a Patent, a Trademark, or a Copyright

by | Jan 4, 2017 | Law Services

Recent Articles

Categories

Archives

Patents, trademarks, and copyrights all are part of intellectual property law. All of them differ by the kind of works they protect. Copyrights protect an original body of work by an author, a patent will protect a discovery, idea, or invention, and trademark will protect symbols, words, phrases or combination which distinguishes a service or good from another person’s service or good.

What’s copyright?

Copyrights are proofs of ownership over an artistic work you created. You may get copyright protection for a song, painting, a picture, a book, a sculpture, poetry, software, architectural work, or sound recording. Having copyright protection will mean that no one else may reproduce it, create a derivative work, distribute copies of your work, publicly display your work or perform your work. A copyright will last for the duration of an author’s life in addition to 70 years afterwards.

Trademark

Trademark law will have two requirements for those who seek to acquire a trademark. Firstly, the mark must be utilized in commerce or an owner must have intent to use it within commerce. Secondly, the mark must be distinct, which means that it isn’t like an existing mark for similar service or product. Also, the mark can’t be generic, which means that you’ll most likely won’t have the ability to obtain a trademark upon a commonly used phrase or word. A trademark may be renewed forever, so long as it’s being utilized in commerce.

Patent

Patents are rights inventors must exclude others from ‘using, making, selling, or offering for sale’ of their invention. Inventions include products or processes that do something new. Patents vary from additional intellectual property due to patent protection only lasting for two decades.

License Intellectual Property

You may permit others to utilize your works with a license agreement. This type of agreement may be customized to restrict how the work may be utilized. In exchange for using your intellectual property, you may collect a charge, commonly referred to as a royalty. Our Trademark Lawyer in Long Island may assist you in negotiating and executing a license agreement which protects your rights, as well as gets you the maximum amount for using your intellectual property.

 

Similar Posts