Trademark

Trademark is a sign which can differentiate a product or service from its competitors. The trademark may also be referred to as the 'brand.' It can be a word or a logo or even a combination of both. For example, there are lots of biscuits on the market, but KitKat is a trademark, which clearly seperates it from the others on the shelf. 
The majority of products and services are covered by something known as 'ordinary' trade marks. These marks work to show the trade origin which basically means they link the owner of the trademark to the products or services and the products or services to the owner.


Acceptable Trademarks:
-Invented words are the most distinctive. e.g. hangil
-An invented word together with a description of the product or service. e.g. hangil windows.
-A word that is not assosiated with the obvious product or service. e.g Dogtooth Finance. This is acceptable for financial servies, however the word 'Dogtooth' would not be acceptable for textiles or fashion as it is the name of a pattern.


Unacceptable Trademarks:    
-24 hours a day: These hours are used by many traders to advertise that their products or services are avaliable 24 hours a day.
-Some slogans are so popular that they are often not distinctive enough and are therefore unacceptable for a trademark.


Starbucks is a registered trademarked coffee house which is well known globally. Some companies copy famous logos, tweaking them slightly to make it their own. However most copies are blatantly ripping off a trademark which if taken seriously can result in the business being sued. 

This coffee shop logo is a blatant copy of the Starbucks logo.
(below)






















There are certain obvious changes that Kaldi's coffee shop has made so that they can suggest they haven't copied the Starbucks logo. For example, the typeface is different, they have a different logo in the centre, the stars have been changed to circles and the green is a slightly different shade. Making a number of changes like this makes the logo different enough for it not to be an infringement.

Design

A Registered Design is a legal right which protects the appearance of  a product or part of a product. It is only possible to do so in the country that it is registered in.

The purpose of a Registered Design is to help you stop others from copying or creating designs which are very similar to your own. 

For the registration, the design is defined legally as being the appearance of the product as a whole as a result of the products features such as colours, texture, shape, contours or materials of the product. Design Registration cannot protect certain things about a product relating the design e.g. the way the product works or the idea behind the product. It just protects the way a product looks visually. 

When relating the Registered Design to the term 'product,' it can mean packaging, typographic typefaces or graphic symbols which are all intended to be made into a more complex product. 

-For a design registration to be valid, it must be a brand new design with nothing similar already on the market or published online. It must also have individual and unique character.

-You cannot register a design if it is in any way offensive, if it contains protected international emblems or flags or if the product is determined by the technical function. 

The owner of a product can grant others permission to use their design and designs can also be sold. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363249/Can-tell-difference-The-parasite-brands-designed-rip-best-sellers.html

Patent

A patent protects new products and covers everything about the product as a whole. For example, what the product does that differentiates it from other products on the market, how it does this, how it is made and what is used to make the product. A patent, gives the owner or inventor of the product the rights to prevent other people from creating, selling, using or importing their invention without their rightful permission.


The patent also allows the inventor to:

-Sell their invention and the rights that come with it.
-License the invention to someone else but retain all the intellectual property rights.

-Discuss the invention with others with the aim to set up a business based around the invention.

To have a patent, the invention must:

-Be brand new, with nothing of the same already invented.

-Have an inventive step that is not obvious to someone with knowledge and experience in the subject

-Be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry and not just for personal use.

The invention must not be:

-A scientific or mathematical discovery, theory or method.

-A literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work.

-A way of performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business.

-The presentation of information, or some computer programs.

-An animal or plant variety.

-A method of medical treatment or diagnosis.

-Against public policy or morality.

A patent must be renewed every year after the 5th year for up to 20 years protection. 

(Crown Copyright, 2011 'About Patents' http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-about/p-whatis.htm [24.10.11])