Whats the difference between (r) registering, (c) copyrighting, and ™ trade marking?
Some people confuse patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Although there may be some similarities among these kinds of intellectual property protection, they are different and serve different purposes. What Is a Patent? A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions. The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the
In our digital age, however, the lines between these begin to blur, and so your question becomes more and more common. It’s an interesting time for these things. A trade mark is a mark of trade. It is designed to let the buyer know who made something. Let’s say 100 different manufacturers make horse shoes. If all their horse shoes look the same and are just labeled “Horse Shoes,” the buyer will not be able to learn from experience who makes bad horse shoes and who makes good ones. You need a way to identify your own products with some sort of brand in order to promote good quality. You do this by coming up with a company name, using your own name, or drawing some sort of special mark on the product you’re selling. This is a Trademark. Now, in order to help settle disputes as to whose trademark is whose and to prevent people from stealing each other’s marks, a company might register its trademark with the government. Once the government has approved it, it becomes a registered trademark
You get a copyright for free. I mark this post copyright (c) Pam Perdue, 2007, and it’s mine. These days I don’t even have to do that, but it’s helpful to prove my case if I want to sue somebody for infringement. I can prove that they at least saw my name. An (r) comes from registering your copyright with the US Copyright Office. I pay them $45, and they’ll vouch for me if I want to sue somebody for infringement. They’re basically saying, “Yeah, we saw it, so we know that Pam had it first.” Those both apply to full works: books, articles, etc. A trademark ™ applies to something shorter: a word, a phrase, or a graphical logo. You don’t get the right to your logo automatically, the way you do with a copyright. You have to pay somebody at the US Patent and Trademark Office, who examines your trademark application. If they believe it’s novel, they’ll
Copyright (C) protects works of authorship (ranging from books to photographs, works of choreography, animated characters and anything else “creative”). Trademarks protect product names and designations. Trademarks that are registered in the US are designated with the “R in a circle” (R) symbol. Unregistered trademarks (which could include trademarks under state law and/or trademarks for which a federal registration application has been filed but not yet granted) use the “TM” symbol. It is unlawful to use the (R) symbol unless you have a federally-registered trademark in the US.
First, there’s trademarking. When you trademark something (the name of a product or a slogan usually) you register your trademark and once you file it you can add an “R” with the circle around it. Then when it is accepted as a trademark you can add the TM to it (it usually takes around a year for the acceptance to come through). Second, you have copyrights and those are to actual work products, like a photograph or an essay or a song. People are often very confused between what a copyright is and what a trademark is.
