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What are copyrights, patents and trademark?
When you are operating a small business there are chances that you may use some tool or technique which is unique to your business and plays a vital role in enhancing the productivity of your business. This means you always run the risk of its getting duplicated, right? This is where terms such as copyrights, patents and trademark come in handy.
What is a copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. There are copyright acts in different countries which give the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, this prevent others from copying the description.
What Is a Patent?
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. In the United States, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent. Patents are generally with regard to products. So, if your small scale business deals with manufacturing and you come manufacture a new product, get it patented to ensure that the design of your creation stays with you!
What Is a Trademark or Servicemark?
A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. This is generally used as a differentiator, so if there are chances there might be several goods in the market like yours then get a servicemark.
A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and servicemarks.
Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark
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