If you have an excellent idea or are currently in the process of developing a new product, sooner or later you will need to consider how to protect your invention.

But how on earth do you go about this, and which protection method is right for your particular situation?

From Patents to Trademarks to Copyright, for someone who has never stepped into the world of property protection, it can be a little confusing.

To put clear water between all of these intellectual property options, here is a rundown of what each means and common uses for them.

Patents

Probably the first thought of any inventor is getting their product patented. A patent is essentially a document which grants a monopoly to a company or individual. It allows them to halt other people or entities using their invention for a certain period of time.

This document explains precisely how the invention works and defines the reach of the monopoly.

Once the document is granted, the owner then has the right to take action against anyone who infringes the claims of the patent.

For something to qualify to be patentable, it must be an original idea and not be an obvious development of something which already exists.

A great example of the power of patents was the work of inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison, who during the late 19th and early 20th century, essentially held a monopoly over the majority of electrical and technological inventions of the time.

By the time he died in 1931, Edison had over 1,000 patents, with some of his most famous on the motion picture camera, the phonograph and the kinetoscope.

Copyright

Copyright is something which we hear in connection with music often, with instances of copyright infringement making the headlines in recent years involving Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye.

Essentially copyright law grants exclusive usage and distribution rights to the creator of original musical, artistic, dramatic or literary work.

So for example, say a newspaper uses an image of a photographers without his/her permission, they have infringed on the copyright.

The use of copyrighted material is often settled either by paying the creator a fee or in some cases, by simply getting their consent, something which doesn’t happen in patented products.

Design Registration

Not dissimilar to a patent is design registration. While this does not protect an invention’s technical concepts or inner workings, it does protect the physical appearance of all or part of a product.

This covers:

• Contours
• Colours
• Shape
• Materials
• Texture

Speaking to Product developers Cambridge Design Technology, they explained that “while design registration isn’t as clinical as a patent, it can suit the needs of certain products better.”

“Take a product in which its entire image is vital in establishing it different to others. A great example would be all of the Apple products, which have a distinct design throughout their tech, from phones to desktops, and without design registration, their entire image may have been at risk.”

Trade Marks

Another important part of intellectual property protection is trademarking. While the others protect an object, this is used to protect words associated with them.

Trademarks are put in place to protect words, logos slogans and packaging to stop them being misused by third parties.

See this piece from Mental Floss which highlights eight examples of legal disputes over the infringement of slogan trademarks.