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Patents and trademarks - what is the difference?

trademark According to the UK Intellectual property office patents protect all the features and processes that make things work, which in turn allows inventors to profit from their inventions. If you neglect to patent your invention, anyone can make or sell your invention without your permission. You may attempt to keep your invention secret, but this may not be possible for a product where the technology is on display.

Benefits of patent protection

A patent gives you - the consumer - the right to stop others from copying, manufacturing, selling, and importing your invention without your permission. The existence of your patent may be enough on its own to stop others from trying to exploit your invention. If it does not, it gives you the right to take legal action to stop them exploiting your invention and to claim damages.

The patent also allows you to:

sell the invention and all the intellectual property (IP) rights
license the invention to someone else but retain all the IP rights
discuss the invention with others in order to set up a business based around the invention.

The public will also benefit from your patent because we publish it after 18 months. Others can then gain advance knowledge of technological developments which they will eventually be able to use freely once the patent ceases." source ipo gov uk.

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