Imagine spending months creating something unique—a brand logo, a catchy slogan, or even an original song—only to see someone else using it as their own. Whether building a business or crafting an artistic masterpiece, intellectual property laws are in place to protect your hard work and creativity.
Trademarks and copyrights are two major players in this space, but people often confuse the two. They serve different purposes, and knowing how each works can save you from costly mistakes and legal battles.
This article will break down what trademarks and copyrights are, what they protect, what infringement looks like, and how they differ. By the end, you’ll know how to protect your ideas, creations, and brand identity.
Table of Contents
What is a trademark?
How do you get a trademark?
What is trademark infringement?
What is copyright?
What is copyright infringement?
Trademark vs. copyright: The key differences
1. How the work is protected
2. What they protect
3. How long they last
4. Active use
In summary
What is a trademark?
A trademark (TM) is an intellectual property that protects logos, brand names, slogans, symbols, or designs that help identify and distinguish a business’s goods or services. Essentially, trademarks prevent others from using marks that could confuse consumers about the source of a product or service.
Under the Trade Marks Act of 1994, trademarks can take various forms related to goods or packaging, like:
- Words or names
- Letters or numerals
- Sounds
- Designs
- Colors
- Shapes
Registering a trademark helps stop others from misusing a brand’s and a business’s reputation. However, to successfully register a trademark, it must meet certain requirements:
- It should be distinctive and can be a word, logo, picture, or a mix.
- It shouldn’t be a common name or place name.
- It must be unique and not too similar to existing trademarks.
How do you get a trademark?
While trademarks can be used and protected under common law without registration, registering your trademark with the appropriate government agency (like the USPTO in the United States) offers additional legal benefits. Registration provides nationwide protection, helps in legal disputes, and allows you to use the ® symbol.
What is trademark infringement?
Trademark infringement happens when someone uses a mark identical or confusingly similar to a registered trademark without permission, especially if it causes consumers to mistake one brand for another.
For instance, if a local sneaker company started selling shoes with a logo similar to the Nike swoosh, it could mislead customers into thinking they were buying Nike products. A recent trademark dispute involved Oatly (a global oat milk brand) taking a UK-based producer to court, claiming their name and branding were too similar.
However, the High Court reviewed the case and ruled against the multinational brand, dismissing the claims of both trademark infringement and “passing off.”
What is copyright?
Unlike trademarks, which protect branding, copyright protects original works of creative expression. This includes art, music, books, photographs, software, and more. If you’ve written a novel, composed a song, or created a painting, copyright laws ensure that no one else can legally copy, reproduce, or distribute your work without your consent.
Copyright protection is automatic when anyone creates and fixes their work in a tangible form. While you don’t need to register your work for copyright protection, doing so with your country’s copyright office provides additional legal benefits, especially in infringement cases.
What is copyright infringement?
Copyright infringement occurs when someone uses your creative work without permission in a way that violates your exclusive rights. This includes:
- Reproducing or distributing your work without consent.
- Adapting your work to create derivative content without authorization (e.g., a remix of your song).
- Performing or displaying your work publicly without proper licensing.
Example: If a company uses a photograph from a professional photographer’s portfolio without licensing it, that’s copyright infringement.
Trademark vs. copyright: The key differences
While trademarks and copyrights protect intellectual property, their purpose and scope differ significantly. Here’s a breakdown:
1. How the work is protected
Trademarks offer full protection after official registration. Protecting your work without registration is possible, but it’s not guaranteed. If the registration body has no objectives, it will start the registration process, which usually takes about four months. Once it is successful, trademark holders will have legal rights to prevent others from using or copying their work without their permission.
On the other hand, copyright automatically applies to you or your business the moment you create something original. Since it grants protection immediately, it’s a good idea to add the copyright symbol (©) on anything they create—it will make protecting your work easier if someone uses it without permission.
2. What they protect
While a trademark ensures no one else can use a symbol, name, or slogan that could confuse consumers about the origin of goods or services, copyright grants exclusive rights over the use, reproduction, and distribution of an original creative work. Here’s a more detailed look:
What does a trademark protect?
Trademarks are all about brand identity. They help customers recognize a product or service from a specific company. For example, the Nike swoosh, Apple’s bitten apple logo, and McDonald’s golden arches are all trademarks that symbolize their respective brands.
Trademarks can apply to:
- Logos and graphic symbols.
- Brand names and product names.
- Slogans, like “Just Do It” (Nike).
- Unique packaging, known as trade dress.
What does copyright protect?
Copyright applies to any original work that is fixed in a tangible medium. This means your idea must be written down, recorded, or saved in some format to qualify for protection. For example:
- A screenplay you’ve written is copyrighted.
- A song you’ve recorded is copyrighted.
- A painting or photograph you’ve created is copyrighted.
However, copyright doesn’t protect ideas—only the specific way an idea is expressed.
3. How long they last
Trademarks won’t have an expiry date as long as holders use them actively in commerce and renew them periodically. Some regions require a renewal every ten years, while others require it every five years. However, failing to renew a trademark means anyone can pick it up and register it.
In contrast, copyrights generally last for the creator’s lifetime plus 70 years (the duration varies by country). After this period, the work enters the public domain, allowing anyone to use it without legal trouble.
4. Active use
Another important difference is active use. Trademarks require continuous use in business. It can become invalid if you stop using your trademark for a long time. However, copyright does not require active use. Your creative work is protected regardless of whether or not you’re actively distributing it.
In summary
When protecting intellectual property, trademarks and copyrights serve very different purposes. Businesses use trademarks to safeguard their brand identity (logos, slogans, or product names). Creatives use copyright to protect their works, such as songs, books, or films.
Knowing the differences ensures that your brand and creative assets are safe, whether building a business, writing a book, or composing a masterpiece. By effectively leveraging these protections, you can focus on growth and creativity without worrying about losing your hard-earned work to misuse or theft.
