What is the difference between a patent and intellectual property?

Unsure about the difference between patents and intellectual property? Fortunately, the expert team at Trademark Eagle can help to clear the confusion.

Below, we explain the definition of both patent and intellectual property as well as the relationship between them, so you’ll know exactly what these terms mean when it comes to protecting your brand and business.

What is the difference between a patent and intellectual property?

Put simply, the only difference between a patent is a form of intellectual property is that a patent is a type of intellectual property that can be protected by registering the rights in it.

This is because the term ‘intellectual property’ covers everything relating to creations of the mind, including designs, literary and artistic work, as well as names, logos, and inventions.

While other types of intellectual property exist, such as registered designs and trade marks, a patent is used specifically to protect a new product or process that has an industrial application by giving the inventor exclusive government-issued rights.

While methods can be patent-protected, theories cannot. By way of illustrating, Amazon was able to patent its 1-Click ordering process which helped the company to streamline and significantly speed up its checkout service.

If another business, or even an individual, decides to manufacture, sell, or import a patent-protected product or process (without the inventor’s permission), then the inventor can take legal action to stop them from doing this.

As a result, the main advantage of obtaining a patent for your new invention is that you have legal protection to help prevent another individual or company from benefitting from your work. It is very important that any product you want to patent, has not been in the public domain ahead of an application being filed.

Protect your intellectual property with Trademark Eagle

At Trademark Eagle, we provide comprehensive registration, renewal, and protection services for your business-critical trade marks. Whilst we specialise in trade mark and design right protection, we can assist you with copy right, licensing of intellectual property, and we can point you in the right direction with patents.

Regardless of whether you’re looking for advice or monitoring to prevent competing trade marks from impacting your brand, we can help.

If you’d like to learn more about how to register intellectual property in the UK or have another query related to intellectual property, patents, or trade marks, please don’t hesitate to contact our expert team today.

Alongside filling out our online contact form, you can also get in touch by giving us a call on 0122 3208 624, emailing your enquiry to enquiries@trademark-eagle.com, or using our convenient live chat feature.

All initial consultations with our in-house legal counsel are free, so you have nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain.