A trademark is one of three legal terms used to describe “intellectual property,” the others being patent and copyright. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, design, combination of letters or numbers, or other device that identifies and distinguishes products and services in the marketplace. A trademark is denoted by the trademark symbol, which is ™, or alternatively by the federal registration symbol, which is ®, if an actual registration filing has been approved by the Trademark Office.

A service mark, denoted by the symbol SM, offers virtually the same protection as a trademark, but is used instead to identify and distinguish services, rather than products. When the term “trademark” or “mark” is used, it is understood to include service mark as well. Trademarks are usually synonymous with the brand name or design that is applied to a business or its products or used in connection with services.

A patent protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of and how they are made. It gives the owner the right to prevent others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission.
Your invention must:

• be new


• have an inventive step that is not obvious to someone with knowledge and experience in the subject


• be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry

not be

• a scientific or mathematical discovery, theory or method


• a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work


• a way of performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business


• the presentation of information, or some computer programs


• an animal or plant variety


• a method of medical treatment or diagnosis


• against public policy or morality.

If your invention meets these requirements, you may want to consider applying for a patent .
If you have a granted patent, you must renew it every year after the 5th year for up to 20 years protection.

Copyright protects creative or artistic works. You should only copy or use a copyrighted work with the copyright owner's permission.
You can copyright:

• literature, including novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database


• drama, including dance or mime


• music,


• art, including paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps and logos


• layouts, used to publish a work, for a book


• recordings , of a work, including sound and film


• broadcasts , of a work

Copyright applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright protected work in another medium without permission. This includes, publishing photographs on the internet, making a sound recording of a book, and so on.
Copyright does not protect ideas for a work. However, when an idea is fixed, for example in writing, copyright automatically protects it. This means that you do not have to apply for copyright.
A copyright protected work can have more than one copyright, or another intellectual property (IP) right, connected to it.
For example, an album of music can have separate copyrights for individual songs, sound recordings, artwork, and so on. Whilst copyright can protect the artwork of your logo, you could also register the logo as a trade mark.

A name that identifies one or more IP addresses . For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages . For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:

• gov, Government agencies


• edu, Educational institutions


• org, Organizations (nonprofit


• mil, Military


• net, Network organizations


• ca , Canada


• th , Thailand

Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.
See our list of Domain Extensions and the countries they coincide with in the Quick Reference section of Webopedia.
Also see Registering a Domain Name in the Did You Know section of Webopedia.

Industrial Design is concerned with all the human aspects of machine-made products and their relationship to people and the environment. The designer is responsible for these products and their impact on society and nature. The designer accounts for the product's human factors engineering, safety, form, color, maintenance and cost. Industrial design deals with consumer products as well as industrial products. In order to achieve these ends, designers must be involved in four major design and research activities: human behavior, the human-machine interface, the environment, and the product itself. Areas of design investigation include furniture, house wares, appliances, transportation, tools, farm equipment, medical/electronic instruments, human interface, and recreational support equipment.

HALIM & ASSOCIATES provides legal translation and interpretation services for Patents, Agreement Contracts, Trials, Contract Negotiations, Franchise Agreements and other legal matters. Also we translate documents for the software, chemical, pharmaceutical, education, government, media and financial fields.