What is the difference between copyrights, trademarks, and patents?
Copyrights protect creative expressions such as paintings, writing, music recordings and compositions, etc. In order to qualify for copyright protection, you must have independently authored the work, and the work must have be fixed in some tangible medium, such as ink on paper, text stored in computer memory, clay shaped into a form, sound recorded on magnetic tape or an mp3 file. Trademarks protect business identity and goodwill that can be found in brand names, drawings, color schemes, sounds or any other symbols used to help customers identify one company as distinct from another company. Trademarks are protected in the U.S. the moment they are used in interstate commerce. Nonetheless, enhanced protection and additional benefits exist if for those trademarks that are registered. Not all trademarks have the same legal strength, nor can all trademarks be registered. For this reason, you are well advised to seek legal counsel at the name choosing stage.Patents protect inventions, meth
