What is the difference between a patent and a trademark?

Patents and trademarks are both forms of intellectual property law. A patent is a form of protection that is given to inventors of new ideas, products, or processes. It gives the inventor exclusive rights to exploit their invention, usually for a period of 20 years. It prevents other people from making, using or selling the invention without permission. A trademark is a form of intellectual property protection for words, phrases, symbols, logos, images, or any combination of these. It allows the owner of the trademark to protect their goodwill by stopping others from using it in a way that makes it confusingly similar to their own product. It also stops competitors from using the trademarks to benefit themselves. The trademark owner can also use it in a way that will make it easier to identify and distinguish their products in the marketplace. Both patents and trademarks protect intellectual property in some way, but they are not the same. A patent gives the owner exclusive rights to use their invention while a trademark does not provide exclusive rights; it only prevents confusion in the marketplace. Furthermore, the duration of a patent is much longer than that of a trademark, which may only last as long as the owner uses it in commerce.

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