What is a Trademark, Copyright, Servicemark, Patent…?
“Copyrights and trademarks, which are sometimes confused, provide different forms of protection. Copyright law protects the way authors and artists express facts and ideas (but not the underlying facts and ideas). Unlike copyright law, trademark law protects names, titles, short phrases and other symbols that distinguish the source of one product (or service) from another. Trademarks — which are a form of commercial shorthand — are important in a marketing sense because they establish goodwill between a purchaser and seller. A service mark relates to services in the same way a trademark relates to products. Patents are used to protect inventions. A patent is applied for and includes a search for conflicting patents or inventions and consists of claims that are typically drafted by an intellectual property or patent attorney. Just about anything that identifies and distinguishes products and services in the marketplace can function as a trademark. A trademark can be a word, symbol, di
