What is the difference between trade-marks and other forms of intellectual property?
Trade-marks are only one form of intellectual property that can be protected through federal legislation. The other forms are: patents, for new technologies; copyrights, for literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works, performance, sound recording or communication signal; industrial designs, for the shape, pattern, or ornamentation applied to an industrially produced object; and integrated circuit topographies, for the three-dimensional configuration of the electronic circuits embodied in integrated circuit products or layout designs.
TM: Trade-marks are only one form of intellectual property that can be protected through federal legislation. The other forms are: patents cover new inventions (process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter), or any new and useful improvement of an existing invention; copyrights provide protection for artistic, dramatic, musical or literary works (including computer programs), and other subject-matter known as performance, sound recording and communication signal; industrial designs are the visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament (or any combination of these features), applied to a finished article of manufacture; integrated circuit topographies refer to the three-dimensional configuration of the electronic circuits embodied in integrated circuit products or layout designs.
