Tuesday 2 December 2008

What's the difference between a Trademark and copyright?

trademark or trade mark, identified by the symbols  and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to identify that the products and/or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source of origin, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities. A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically a name, word, phrase, logosymbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these standard categories.

The owner of a registered trademark may commence legal proceedings for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. However, registration is not required. The owner of a common law trademark may also file suit, but an unregistered mark may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical areas into which it may be reasonably expected to expand.


A trademark is something you have to register and pay for, but is a lot more concrete than normal copyright, because you have it all on file when you register it.

But a trademark lasts for less time than copyright, because you have to keep trading and registering your trademark every so often.

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