What are trademarks, patents and copyrights?
In short, a trademark is a prominent symbol used to distinguish goods or services, and it is the most common type of intellectual property. Patents refer to inventions protected by law, including invention patents, utility model patents and design patents. Copyright, also known as copyright, refers to the rights enjoyed by authors of literary, artistic and scientific works.
What do trademarks, patents and copyrights protect respectively?
Copying obscure legal provisions and boring definitions is obviously not the author's style. In order to let everyone have a deeper perceptual knowledge, we illustrate that in the era of artificial intelligence, smart cars have become a field that major giants are scrambling to study. If Company A's R&D team finally successfully develops a new generation of smart cars through unremitting efforts, how can Company A protect its intellectual property rights?
First of all, a product should have a resounding name before it goes on the market, such as? ABC？ And then what? ABC？ Can be used as the trademark of this car, once? ABC？ The trademark has been registered, so in the field of smart cars, no one else can use it without the permission of Company A? ABC？ This brand.
Second, is not to let others use it? ABC？ Of course, this name does not completely protect intellectual property rights. For example, the breakthrough technology of smart cars cannot be protected by applying for trademarks. At this point, the patent will come in handy. If Company A applies for a patent for this technology, even if competitors have cracked the related technology, they can't use it on their own products without authorization, which protects Company A's patented technology from infringement to the maximum extent.
Thirdly, the software system is also very important for smart cars. In order to prevent competitors from copying software source code, it is also a wise choice to apply for software copyright registration (software copyright belongs to a kind of copyright). In case of plagiarism, the software copyright certificate of Company A is strong evidence of rights protection.
To sum up, different fields of intellectual property protection are different: trademark protection focuses on the signs of goods or services, patent protection focuses on novel technologies, and copyright protection focuses on original works. As can be seen from the above examples, in order to protect the name, technology and software source code of smart cars, Company A applied for trademark, patent and software copyright registration respectively, so as to achieve the purpose of comprehensive protection of intellectual property rights.
Trademarks, patents and copyrights are different in nature.
Trademarks, patents and copyrights all need to be manually examined when applying for registration, but based on their different characteristics, the focus of examination is also different:
Trademark review is about distinctiveness. Simply put, it is to be able to distinguish and distinguish from others. For example, delicious brand apples have little meaning: because delicious is an adjective, delicious apples cover a wide range, and such words cannot be monopolized by a certain enterprise, so they cannot be distinguished. In addition to the distinctiveness of trademarks, similarity should also be examined, that is, under the same category, there can be no prior application for the same or similar trademarks. If there is both distinctiveness and no similar trademark, then the trademark can almost pass the examination.
The focus of patent examination is novelty. In short, this technology is unprecedented. The review method is also very simple, and it is generally judged by consulting the existing literature. If the existing literature cannot be found, then the patent is novel.
Copyright is special, because it has been obtained since the author completed it, and no certificate is needed to prove his rights. Seeing this, many people will definitely ask, in this case, why do you want to be copyright registration? In fact, whether copyright registration or not, the author enjoys copyright, but it is difficult to prove who is the original author. For example, if you write an article and someone else uses it one day, how can you prove that you wrote it? If you finish writing an article, it becomes copyright registration. When others steal your article again, you can take out the copyright certificate to protect your rights and interests. Therefore, copyright registration lightens the burden of proof of the original author (if it is not registered, it is actually difficult for the original author to produce convincing evidence, or even if it can be produced, the cost is high, so it is better to spend hundreds of dollars to run a copyright registration).
Copyright registration's audit is also relatively easy, only formal audit, no substantive audit, so the application time is also very fast, and the application can be completed in about one month. The main purpose of copyright review is originality. Simply put, you didn't copy. In fact, this matter is difficult to identify. In practice, many plagiarized works have successfully applied for copyright registration.
Summary and suggestions
Let's sum up the above discussion: copyright only plays the role of registration, and its greatest significance lies in reducing the burden of proof of the author. If others can produce stronger evidence in court, maybe the plot will be reversed. Even if it is not registered as copyright, the original author still enjoys legal rights. In a word, the copyright registration certificate has only constructive effect, but no probative effect; Trademarks and patents are different. Once the registration is successful, the certificate in hand can repel opponents and is a powerful weapon to safeguard rights and interests.
Because trademarks and patent certificates have strong probative effect, entrepreneurs must apply for trademarks and patents in advance before the products go on the market to prevent others from preempting them. In case of cybersquatting, although you can appeal, the procedure is complicated and the cost is high, and many disputes have not been resolved so far. Ask entrepreneurs to give us a lesson. In addition, it is best to do copyright registration's important works. If you don't want to be a copyright registration, you can leave a piece of evidence for yourself in the simplest way, that is, apply for an email address of a well-known company and send a copy of your work to the email address. The time and content on the email will be important evidence when defending rights. Although the legal effect of e-mail is lower than that of copyright registration, and the cost of proof is likely to be higher than that of copyright registration, this method can also be regarded as a regret medicine.
Copyright patent