Trademarks? Copyrights? What’s the Difference?

Anyone with a business that involves a trademark or copyrighted material needs to know the difference between these two things and how to protect their rights and intellectual property. If you don’t know the difference, here’s how the two concepts differ. A trademark can be a word, an image, or a name that is used to distinguish one product or service from all others.

Trademarks are also known as service marks when they describe only a service and not a particular product. Establishing a trademark will prevent competitors from using a similar name, device, or symbol for a similar product. When a trademark is used in interstate or international commerce, it is usually registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to ensure that it is protected. As a general rule, established trademark law will protect the owner’s overall investment in any trademark. A competing business could be sued, for instance, if their similar trademark was put on an inferior product that was defective or inferior, and damaged the reputation of the original trademark holder.

Copyright, on the other hand is the legal right given to a novelist, short story writer, composer, playwright, publisher or distributor, which grants them the exclusive rights to publication, production, sale, and distribution of a literary work of any length, as well as musical, dramatic, artistic works including paintings, drawings, sculpture, or multimedia creations. Establishing a copyright prevents someone from stealing all or part of your idea.

Use of copyrighted materials without permission is called plagiarism and is an offense that can be prosecuted in a court of law. Movies, television shows, documentaries, training films and even travelogues fall under copyright protection. Not only literary works such as novels, nonfiction, magazine articles, technical manuals, catalogs, poetry, and advertising copy, copyright can cover many different types of intellectual property. For instance, did you know that advertising jingles could be covered by copyright? Pantomimes and all choreographic routines can also be copyrighted, as well as ballets, jazz dance moves, and modern dance.

Visual images such as photographs, cartoons, maps, drawings, advertising artwork, even stuff animal designs and statues can be copyrighted. Even things like architectural renderings or models fall under copyright protection. Whether an individual work is the product of a single human brain or a team of people working together, it can be copyrighted. Any idea that you want to protect must be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Once it’s established as a registered copyright, you have the right to sue anyone for copyright infringement in a federal court.

Establishing a trademark or a copyright must be done carefully to ensure that one’s intellectual property rights are properly set down according to legal precedent. You can do it yourself, but it’s probably not a good idea. First, you need to establish that your idea is original enough to be copyrighted. You can do that by having a copyright search performed. Then, if you have come up with something that can be copyrighted or trademarked, you should at least have all of the paperwork vetted and checked by a lawyer. Don’t go with just any lawyer, however.

You need to find one in your area who specializes in copyright or trademark law. It’s easy enough to find one on the Internet. Don’t allow yourself to be influenced by the lawyer’s advertising. Before employing any lawyer, you need to check the firm he or she works with to see if there have been any complaints registered against them with the Bar Association. As with anyone you hire to perform a service for you, caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware). Copyrights and trademarks are too valuable to entrust with just anyone.