Patent vs. Trademark — What's the Difference?

A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of years, in exchange for publishing an enabling public disclosure of the invention. In most countries, patent rights fall under private law and the patent holder must sue someone infringing the patent in order to enforce his or her rights.

A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others, although trademarks used to identify services are usually called service marks. The trademark owner can be an individual, business organization, or any legal entity.

A government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention

A symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product.

Patent leather

Provide with a trademark

Easily recognizable; obvious

Abbr. TM A name, symbol, or other device used to identify and promote a product or service, especially an officially registered name or symbol that is thereby protected against use by others.

(of a vessel, duct, or aperture) open and unobstructed; failing to close

A distinctive characteristic by which a person or thing comes to be known

Made and marketed under a patent; proprietary

To label (a product) with proprietary identification.

Obtain a patent for (an invention)

To register (something) as a trademark.

A grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.

A word, symbol, or phrase used to identify a particular company's product and differentiate it from other companies' products.

Letters patent.

Any proprietary business, product or service name.

An invention protected by such a grant.

The aspect for which someone or something is best known; a hallmark or typical characteristic.

A grant of publicly owned land, particularly to a homesteader.

(proscribed) To register something as a trademark.

The official document of such a grant.

(proscribed) To so label a product.

The land so granted.

(informal) Distinctive, characteristic, signature.

An exclusive right or title.

A distinctive characteristic or attribute

Protected or conferred by a patent or letters patent

A formally registered symbol identifying the manufacturer or distributor of a product

Of, relating to, or dealing in patents

(also pātnt) Obvious; plain

Not blocked; open

Spreading open; expanded

Relating to or being a nonprescription drug or other medical preparation that is protected by a trademark.

Of high quality. Used of flour.

To obtain a patent on or for (an invention, for example).

To invent, originate, or be the proprietor of (an idea, for example).

To grant a patent to or for.

(law)

An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.

(specifically)

A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.

(by extension) A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.

(uncountable) shoes]]

(figuratively)

A licence or (formal) permission to do something.

A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.

(gambling) The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.

To (successfully) register (a new invention) with a government agency to obtain the sole privilege of its manufacture, sale, and use for a specified period.

To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.

To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

(baking) Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.

(medicine) Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.

Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.

Explicit and obvious.

(archaic)

Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.

Appointed or conferred by letters patent.

(botany) Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.

(law) Protected by a legal patent.

To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.

Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous.

Open to public perusal; - said of a document conferring some right or privilege; as, letters patent. See Letters patent, under 3d Letter.

Appropriated or protected by letters patent; secured by official authority to the exclusive possession, control, and disposal of some person or party; patented; as, a patent right; patent medicines.

Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf.

A letter patent, or letters patent; an official document, issued by a sovereign power, conferring a right or privilege on some person or party.

The right or privilege conferred by such a document; hence, figuratively, a right, privilege, or license of the nature of a patent.

To grant by patent; to make the subject of a patent; to secure or protect by patent; as, to patent an invention; to patent public lands.

A document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention

An official document granting a right or privilege

Obtain a patent for;

Grant rights to; grant a patent for

Make open to sight or notice;

(of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage;

Clearly apparent or obvious to the mind or senses;