What is the difference between copyright and other forms of Intellectual property?
Copyright | Patents | Trademark | Trade Secret | |
What’s Protected? | You can protect original works, for example books, articles, photographs, songs, sculptures, choreography movements, sound recordings, motion pictures, and other works | Various inventions or improvements to inventions, such as machines, appartuses, processes, manufactures | Word or words, short phrases, images or symbols that distinguish the source of the products of a company/individual from those of others | Formula, recipes, pattern, commercial method, practice, process, design, instrument |
What’s required to be protected | Must be original, creative and fixed in a tangible medium | An invention must be new, useful and not obvious (i.e. you must have a prototype) | A trademark must be distinctive and unique and capable of identifying the source of the products or services | Must not be generally known to the public. There must be some economic benefit due to its secret nature and there must be reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy |
Term of Protection | Author’s life plus 70 more years (in the US) or 50 more years (in Canada). Effective 2015, Canada extended the protection of copyright in specific works: performances and sound recordings to 70 years after the release date of the sound recording | 20 years | Indefinetely. As long as the mark is used | As long as it remains secret |
What are the rights granted | You have the right to control the reproduction, distribution and public performance and display of the copyrighted works | You can prevent others from making, selling, importing, exporting or using the patented invention | An exclusive right to use the trademark by affixing it to your products or when offering the servies and to prevent others from using identical or similar marks for similar products or services in a way that may cause customers to be confused | Right to stop others from misappropriating, using and disclosing the trade secret to others |