The difference between Copyright and Trademarks

It is common that people are not very clear about the concepts of trademark and copyright. Any person who owns a business should be aware of the difference between these two terms, and even the most experienced businessmen have problems with these definitions.

But don’t worry! The reason for this article is for you to be certain of the distinction between the two.

We don’t want to play the legal grammar police; however, it is important for new business owners to understand the difference between these terms. You want to be one step ahead of competitors when registering and protecting your company the way you need it.

Trademark

A trademark protects a word, symbol, or logo that identifies a good or service, and distinguishes them from other goods or services in the marketplace.

Trademark protects the brand associated with your product or service.

COPYRIGHT

A copyright protects an original creative expression, usually associated with musical, literary, or artistic works. Copyright protects your creative content

Keep in mind, copyrights and trademarks only protect actual usage in the marketplace.

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To make it clearer: let’s imagine a box of cereal. Everything on the outside of the packaging, including the logo, the name or the slogan, falls under the trademark category, but the content inside, what people perceive as valuable of your product, the cereal itself, is what is protected by copyright.

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A trademark works as a source identifier and gives the consumer an opportunity to associate your mark with a specific product. This is particularly valuable for a business because consumers associate things such as quality or reliability with a brand name.

In other words, trademarks are not inherently valuable. What has real value is what your business does that differentiates it from others. Most people want a special name for their business like “Nike” or “Apple” that makes them a globally recognized brand, but the truth is that the brand becomes valuable over time when the consumer sees your product and says “that’s what I want”.

You should go for TRADEMARK first

Maybe after reading this, you will say that copyright is the most important thing and that it is the first thing you will apply to, but in a world where we are connected online and even businesses are online, copyright becomes a bit more complex and that is because this tool only protects your finished product.
Imagine having a podcast where you create content on a daily basis and having to apply for each episode to be protected by copyright. It would become tedious, wouldn’t it? But with trademarks you will only have to apply once to protect your logo, your business name or your slogan.

You may wonder which one you should go for first, a trademark or a copyright. We recommend you to go for the trademark first, because the name of your business will be what people will recognize when they consume your content.