Also, when should each be used and at which cases?
In: Economics
It’s in the name: a copyright is your “right” not to have someone else “copy” your art. A trademark is a “mark” you use to distinguish your goods from your competitors in your trade.
The movie “Incredibles 2” is subject to copyright, because its an artistic work. No one can copy the movie itself or any artistic aspects of the movie.
“Pixar” is a trademark. It tells you who made the movie, so that if you like it you might see more Pixar movies. No one else can make movies using the name “Pixar” because it might confuse moviegoers, but you can probably start a coffee shop called “Pixar Coffee” because one one will think the same people are making animation and brewing lattes.
(C) is just a shorthand notation that means “copyright.” It’s used to alert people that something is subject to a copyright. (R) means “Registered,” which means the person who owns the copyright went through the extra step of “registering” it with the federal government.
Trademarks have to be paid for. They last as long as you keep paying for them and keep defending them (suing anyone who uses them without permission). To qualify, a trademark can’t be too generic (a baking chain couldn’t trademark “The Bread Shop”) or so close to another existing trademark that it might cause confusion.
Copyright is free but lasts for a limited time.
It’s all the same, and you can also add patents, according to people who use the term “intellectual property”.
Seriously though…
* Copyright is a set of rules governing reproduction and usage of creative works.
* Trademarks deal with company identity protection.
* Patents ensure a time-limited monopoly on usage of an invention.
Copyright is what forbids you from copying a Beatles record for a friend. Trademark is what forbids you from stamping “Disney” on children’s books you write and publish. Patents is what forbade you to produce and sell sildenafil (viagra) until 2017 (though the molecule had been sold by Pfizer since 1998).
A trademark is an identifier, whereas a copyright or a patent protects the work. Say, for example, that the Arborist Society writes a book called *Caring for Your Forests*.
They would trademark the Arborist Society name and logo, so that Joe Schmoe can’t write his own book about forests under the Arborist Society name.
They would copyright the book so that the Forestry Association couldn’t publish the same book and profit from the Arborists’ work.
A trademark is generally assumed as a given; if you operate consistently under the same name and logo, you have trademark rights by default; copyright is more complicated and you usually have to go register for it when you publish. You *can* register a trademark, which means basically that the government will put more resources behind you if someone tries to make something under your name. You don’t have to do this, but if you don’t, you’ll have to search for people using your name and logos if you want to sue them over it.
Copyright covers creative work, such as anything written, music, videos, art, etc.
Trademark protects a company’s identity — name, logo, colors, tagline and such, so that another company couldn’t try to confuse customers in the marketplace. Anything created can be marked with a TM but if you file your trademarks with the government and they are approved then you can use the (R).
Copyright is used to protect creative works like books, movies, music, and even gamer streams. It’s created automatically when the work is created, but if you register the copyright (which is easy) you get certain protections, like being able to recover legal fees in court.
Trademarks are for protecting the name and logo of a brand.
Patent is for protecting an invention.
Copyright is more for creative work e.g. artist paintings, books, photos etc.
Trademark is for letting people know hey we own this this is ours, for things like logos, slogans, company names and so on.
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