Trademarks come into play in connection with marketing issues. What do you call your product or service? Will customers readily recognize the brand and distinguish it from competing products? In this sense, a trademark identifies the source of goods or services.
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Patents protect rights in inventions. U.S. law grants the inventor a monopoly on the rights to the invention for twenty years. This limited-term monopoly is intended to encourage inventors to file for patent protection, thereby publishing their inventions and promoting further invention. Patents are published once they are issued. The fact that patents are published distinguishes them from trade secrets, which also protect the underlying invention.
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Copyright law protects original, creative expression in the tangible form of books, films, music and other works of art. In the commercial area, copyrights protect advertising materials, trade publications, label designs, operations manuals and photographs. Copyrights also protect computer software and databases.
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Trade secrecy law protects confidential information that has commercial value. Unlike copyright law, trade secrecy law protects the ideas themselves.
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