<h1>Understanding Intellectual Property</h1>

Knowing who owns what and what you have a right to use can be confusing sometimes. Copyrighted material, trademarks and patents... what is the difference, exactly? Well, I'm gonna break it down for you.

• Trademark

  A trademark must be registered. It can be the name of a company, product or service. Anything that is a registered trademark cannot be used or even mimicked by another. A domain name, for example, can be a trademark. Companies register trademarks in order to secure proprietary rights of certain words or symbols with their name.

• Patent

  Patents must also be registered, but unlike trademarks, patents have to do with the inventions of products and technologies. Patents register ideas, whereas trademarks register names.

• Copyright

  Copyrights apply to artwork; no registration is needed. The author or creator is granted exclusive rights to their own works during their lifetime, and are protected for another 50 years after their death. Copyrights protect the works from being copied or exploited by anyone other than their rightful owner.
  
  Of course, it is very easy to take copyrighted material and use it. If you are really bent on protecting your work, you should get it verified, with the date. If you are on the other end of the stick, the one using the artwork, you should look for artwork which is licensed. Photos with a Create Commons license allow the creator to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive, and can often be used with attribution to the creator. As such, photos with Creative Commons on flickr.com can be used freely, as well as all photos on everystockphoto.com. For a small(ish) fee, one can acquire photos, videos, illustrations or audio for (even commercial) use at istockphoto.com. Though, you cannot earn money directly from the artwork, it is meant to help promote your business, not be it.

Well, I hope that's cleared things up for ya.