The Important Difference Between Trademarks and Patents

When it comes to protecting your assets or products, most people think about obtaining a trademark or a patent. Unless you have had prior experience applying for either one, understanding the difference between these types of protection can be confusing.

For this blog, we’re going to ask, and answer, the simple and important questions about protecting your business.

What’s the Difference Between a Trademark and a Patent?

Both patents and trademarks are types of intellectual property but that is where the similarities end. Patents and trademarks are used to protect different aspects of intellectual property.Intellectual Property (IP) is used as a blanket term for owners to claim exclusive rights for different types of assets. There are four main types of intellectual property, they include:

• Patents
• Trademarks
• Copyright
• Trade Secrets

For this blog, we are going to compare the differences between a Trademark and a Patent.

Understanding Trademarks

A trademark can best be described as a brand protection. Trademarks include a words, phrases, images, colors, sounds or anything else that helps individuals recognize your goods or services. An example of a famous trademark would be McDonald's.

Here are some examples of the different types of trademarks they hold:

• Main Trademark: McDonald’s name/brand
• Slogan Trademark: ‘I’m Lovin’ it’ or ‘Super Size’
• Menu Item Name Trademark: ‘Chicken McNuggets’ or ‘McChicken’
• Visual Symbols: The Golden Arches or the Happy Meal Box
• Charitable Trademark: Ronald McDonald House

Understanding Patents

A patent protects an invention and provides exclusive rights to sell, use or manufacture the patented invention. A patent can only be issued if the idea is converted into something tangible, whether it is an apparatus, method, process or system. Continuing with our example of McDonald's, below are some examples of patents they own.

According to registerrecipe.com, McDonald’s patents include:

• Packaging;
• Equipment used in cooking food; and
• Methods of preparing/cooking food

Here is an example of a method patent Mcdonald’s owned for their method of making a sandwich

Patents and trademarks can help a business become successful. Simple inventions, such as making a sandwich, are potentially patentable if nobody else has done it before. If you are interested in a consultation with our Trademark and Patent Lawyers and Agents in Edmonton, click here.