Many people confuse the three main types of intellectual property protection: copyrights, trademarks, and patents.

Copyright

Copyrights are a form of intellectual property protection that allows the owner of a copyright to have the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, display, and make derivative works from the copyrighted work. Copyrights generally protect works in a fixed, tangible form of expression. Copyrights generally apply to works of arts, photographs, and sound recordings. The duration of a copyright is usually the author’s life plus seventy years, unless it is a “work for hire,” then it is 120 years after creation or ninety-five after publication, whichever comes first.

Trademark

Trademarks are usually words, logos, or symbols that are used in conjunction with goods and services to indicate where the goods or services originate from. In this way they act as a source identifier and are used to distinguish one provider of goods or services from another. Trademark owners whom have registered their trademarks may prevent others from using marks or logos that are deemed confusingly similar on comparable goods or services. A trademark registration lasts ten years but can be renewed every ten years thereafter.

Patent

Patents are granted for inventions and give the holder of a patent the right to exclude others from using, offering for sale, making, importing, or selling said invention in the United States. A patent lasts twenty years from the earliest filing date on the application. For patents filed prior to June 8, 1995, the term is either twenty years from the earliest filing date or seventeen years from the issue date, whichever is longer. For design patents, patents based on decorative, non-functional features, the term is fourteen years from the issue date.

Lastly, the U.S. Copyright Office, which is a division of the Library of Congress, governs the registration and management of copyrights, while the United States Patent and Trademark Office oversees all patent and trademark matters.

Source: http://www.uspto.gov/main/profiles/copyright.htm http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/ http://www.uspto.gov/patents/

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the IP law firm and its IP law attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

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