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When should entrepreneurs be concerned about copyrighting and trademarking

Entrepreneurship is traditionally thought of as the process of designing, launching and efficiently running a business idea. Entrepreneurs start by offering a new product, service or process at a small scale and gradually wish to reach a wider section of society and rake in positive reviews and hefty revenues. The people who create such kinds of offerings are called entrepreneurs and considered the next gen superheroes. Whenever a new kind of product is offered, it usually has some novelty attached to it and that is one of the aspects that helps them to make it big. Be it the idea or the quality of service, the design, logo, packaging whatever it is that makes it a hit with the people and makes it a brand in the longer term.

However, in order to remain catchy, it must be exclusive to the company and in order to be that way, it must be protected and at this point in time he thinks about getting a trademark or a copyright on the product. So as soon as the idea is conceived and he thinks that it can turn out to be a money maker and make people’s lives comfortable, he must go for a trademark or copyright whatever is suitable to his line of product. This is because there are always some eagles waiting to get hold of the hard work you put in to build your brand and if they can get a copyright on your product, you will have to take their permission in order to make, sell or distribute the product that you built.

If copyrights and trademarks are so essential, let us know what they are. It is widely confused that trademark and copyright are the same thing but actually they stand for different things. They might have some overlapping and both are used to protect your property. Unlike patents, which require filing in order to get protection, trademark and copyrights have some protection without filing.

A copyright law protects an idea or your intellectual property. Typically, copyrights are used for graphics, music, books, artistic works, videos, photographs etc. Copyright law uses the ordinary observer test and it prevents someone from making a close copy of your product. As a default, the creator is the owner of the copyright but there are laws that may transfer the ownership to business in case there is such kind of contract involved.

On the other hand, a trademark law is used to protect the identification of the brand usually logo design. However, many other such things can be trademarked such as bottle shapes, color, bottle shapes etc. A copyright law uses “ordinary observer” test whereas the trademark law is concerned with “likelihood of confusion”.


There is no limitation on using only one to protect your property. Both of them have their importance and in any case both of these can be used if your product meets the requirements that are needed to obtain these protections. So be smart and be safe and avail the benefits as soon as you think your product is ready to meet the standards.

This article has been contributed by Simmi Setia, Content Writer at LegalRaasta, an online portal for GST Software, GST Return Filing, GST Registration, Section 8 Company Registration, Nidhi Company Registration, IEC Registration, Fssai License, File ITR Online. 

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