As China pays more and more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, many enterprises have promoted intellectual property rights to the height of corporate strategy. The most common intellectual property rights are trademarks, patents and copyrights. What are the differences among trademarks, patents and copyrights? What is the scope of their respective protection? How can enterprises protect their intellectual property more comprehensively?
If you are a consumer, watching movies, listening to music, playing mobile phones and reading books are actually enjoying the intellectual achievements created by others. Movies and music have copyright, mobile phones have trademark, patent and copyright, and books have copyright.
If you are a manufacturer or service provider, if your product or service wants to be different from other goods or services, you must submit patents, trademarks, copyrights and other rights, otherwise your business will not last long. For example, it takes three years to develop a product. If you do not apply for the registration of the corresponding intellectual property rights for it, it is very likely that someone else copied the product you created with great care in three months.
1、 What are trademark right, patent right and copyright?
A trademark is a sign that distinguishes goods or services and has a distinctive source of characteristics. With the development of economy, the function of trademark in modern society has become increasingly prominent. It is a necessary tool for goods or services to enter the market and occupy a certain market position, gain the trust of consumers, and develop and grow.
Patents refer to inventions and creations protected by law, including invention patents, utility model patents and appearance patents.
Copyright, also known as copyright, refers to the rights enjoyed by the authors of literary, artistic and scientific works.
2、 What are the different characteristics of different intellectual property rights
Trademark, patent or copyright need to be manually examined when applying for registration, but due to their different characteristics, the focus of examination is different:
1. Trademark examination:
(1) Significance.
The distinctiveness of a trademark refers to the characteristics that a trademark should have enough to enable the relevant public to distinguish the source of goods. The following are examples of situations that lack significance:
Only the general name, figure and model of the product. For example, the company that sells such fruits as apples defines the trademark of apples as "apple";
Directly indicating the quality, main raw materials, function, use, weight, quantity and other characteristics of the commodity. For example, the trademark of edible oil is "pure"; The trademark of a garment is directly designated as "colored cotton". These names that directly indicate the quality, raw materials and functions of the designated goods cannot be registered as trademarks.
Other lack of obvious characteristics. For example, too simple lines and ordinary geometric figures cannot be registered as trademarks.
(2) Prior sameness or approximation.
Under the same category, if there is an earlier application for the same or similar trademark, the trademark cannot pass the examination. When applying for the registration of a graphic combination trademark (there are words and figures in the trademark), the examiner of the Trademark Office will examine the graphic, Chinese and English separately. If the word examination passes but the graphic examination does not pass, the trademark will be rejected. On the contrary, if the graphic review is passed but the text is not, it will also be rejected. According to the principle of trademark examination standards, different elements in the trademark shall be examined separately. If any element is similar, the trademark will be rejected as a whole.
2. Patent examination.
Inventions and utility models for which patent rights are granted shall possess novelty, inventiveness and practicality.
(1) Novelty
The novelty of a patent means that the patent for invention or the patent for utility model does not belong to the prior art; Neither has any entity or individual applied to the patent administration department under the State Council for the same invention or utility model before the application date and recorded it in the patent submission documents or patent documents announced after the application date.
(2) Creativity
The inventiveness of a patent means that, compared with the prior art, the invention has prominent substantive features and significant progress, and the utility model has substantive features and progress.
(3) Practicability
Practicability means that the invention or utility model can be manufactured or used and can produce positive effects. "Capable of manufacturing or using" means that inventions and creations can be manufactured in large quantities in industrial, agricultural and other industries, and applied to industrial and agricultural production and people's lives, while producing positive effects.
3. Copyright review.
Copyright is different from patents and trademarks. Because the author has obtained the copyright since the completion date, there is no need for a certificate to prove his rights.
Then why should we register the copyright? Because although the author enjoys the copyright whether the copyright is registered or not, it is difficult to prove who is the original author. But if you have done the copyright registration after completing the work. When others plagiarize, they can take out the copyright certificate to protect their rights and interests..
The copyright registrants only conduct formal examination, not substantive examination, so the application time is also very fast, and the application can be completed in about a month.