- Copyright is always applied to any work of a natural person. It's the right to copy, modify, ... the work. Some of these rights can be sold or loaned. How long this is valid varies between countries, but in Austria it's 80 years if I remember right.
- Trademarks are any symbols used to identify a product or company. Examples would be the Coca-Cola logo, or the phrase "Where do you want to go today?". I'm unsure about how and where they have to be registered and how long they are valid
- Patents are used to get an exclusive right of usage on an invention, meaning whoever gets the patent gets to use that technology, even if someone else invented it too (but later). Invention is defined by Austrian law to be something that modifies the physical world, so software patents aren't possible, except maybe for hardware drivers (eg tape robots, ...). A patent has a defined time of validity, after which anyone can use that technology.
Usually, there isn't necessary a connection between these. Software programmers might need to sign over most of their rights to their company, but they always have the right to be credited as the author. Coca-Cola has no patent on their beverage formula, since that would mean publicizing it, so it's kept a "Trade Secret". And while patents and copyrights are usually connected with a product, a trademark can represent anything from a company to a product.
And just like in class I probably missed or forgot something |
