General Information on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
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What is a Patent?
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, "the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling" the inventionin the United States or "importing" the invention into the United States.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, name, aymbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.
What is a Service mark?
A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.
What is the difference between a word mark and a design mark?
What are Copyrights?
A copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The copyright protects the form of expression rather that the subject matter of the writing.
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Please visit these websites for additional information and procedures for filing applications:
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