What is a patent? A grant of a property right issued to the inventor for his invention by the Patent and Trademark Office is called a patent.  The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States.  US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions. Having a patent does not grant the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but it does grant  the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention into the United States. 2 Types of Patents: Utility Patent Anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or compositions of matters, or any new useful improvement thereof, may be granted a utility patent. Design Patent Patents that are granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture are called design patents. What is the Difference between a Trademark and a Servicemark? A word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and distinguish them from the goods of others is called a trademark.   A servicemark differs from a trademark in that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.   Trademark rights are rights that may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but can not prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. The Patent and Trademark Office will register trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce. What is a Copyright? 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authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished is called a copyright.  The 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly. A copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing.  For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine.  Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.