Advantus utilizes NetSuite to manage and track its trademarks, copyrights, and patents.
This chart provides a quick, at-a-glance comparison of the four different types of intellectual property (IP): trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret. It details, for each type of IP, the eligible subject matter, the requirements for protection, ownership principles, what is required for infringement/misappropriation and the available remedies, and significant limitations. Trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret are all different forms of IP, each providing varying protections to the owner. Though these types of IP may complement each other (and occasionally overlap), no two forms provide the exact same rights. Each type of IP protection relates to specific subject matter, with differing requirements and restrictions and similar, but not identical, remedies for violation of the owner’s rights.
| Trademark | Copyright | Patent | Trade Secret | |
| Eligible Subject Matter | Source identifiers, the form of which is virtually unlimited, including words, designs, logos, slogans, sounds, colors, product configurations, and product packaging | Works of authorship (i.e., literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes & choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, & sculptural works, audiovisual works, sound recordings, architectural works) | Inventions (i.e., processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter; ornamental designs) | Commercially sensitive information (e.g., secret formulas, patterns, compilations, programs, devices, methods, techniques, or processes) |
| Requirements | Distinctiveness (i.e., ability to act as source identifier) | Originality and fixation in a tangible medium | Novelty, nonobviousness, utility, adequate written description | Actual secrecy, reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy, independent economic value |
| Ownership | First to use in commerce (either actual use or constructive use through an intent-to-use application) | Author or author’s assignee | Inventor or inventor’s assignee | Developer or developer’s assignee |
| Infringement /Misappropriation | Use of a similar mark likely to cause confusion in the marketplace as to the source of a product and/or service | Reproducing, adapting, distributing, performing, or displaying a work without authorization | Making, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing the invention without authority | Acquisition, use, or disclosure without authorization |
| Remedies | Injunctive relief; damages including lost profits, infringer’s profits, or a reasonable royalty | Injunctive relief; damages including lost profits, infringer’s profits, a reasonable royalty, or statutory damages | Injunctive relief; damages including lost profits, an established royalty or reasonable royalty, or enhanced damages | Injunctive relief; damages including lost profits, infringer’s profits, or a reasonable royalty |
| Significant Limitations | First sale doctrine, fair use | Merger doctrine, fair use, first sale doctrine, compulsory licensing | Exhaustion doctrine, reasonable repair doctrine | Independent development |