When should I register my trademark?
Timing is everything, and this is especially true when it comes to trademark registration. Choosing to trademark your brand at the right time is much more important than you would think.
What's the difference between a trademark, a patent and copyright?
Written by Jan Buza
Co-founder of Trama
Trademarks, copyrights and patents are all legal instruments available to protect an individual's or company's intellectual property rights, but each fulfils a different role and functions differently.
We can surmise the meaning of a trademark from its very name - it's a "mark" used in "trade". The main purpose of a trademark is to protect a brand's distinctiveness - for businesses, this means safeguarding their brand from infringement attempts; for customers, a trademark signals a single identifiable source of goods and services. This ties trademarks to the concept of a "brand" and makes them a perfect tool to protect a company or product name, logo or slogan.
Copyright protects a piece of (usually artistic) creation from copying or adaptation. It's well suited for literary, musical, dramatic and other creative outputs.
A patent protects the technical aspects of a new invention and ensures that the underlying functionality and/or mechanism described in the patent cannot be imitated. Where trademarks are concerned with whether two businesses from similar industries might give out a similar commercial impression, a patent is concerned with HOW a product is made, and gives inventors exclusive rights to use their inventions.
You can read more about intellectual property protection options in our article Trademarks, copyrights, designs & patents.
Related questions
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Can anyone register a trademark?
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