Three crucial legal frameworks – copyrights, trademarks and patents – emerge from the same basic legal requirement. These are various types of intellectual property that ensure securing of property rights of persons or companies. However, there are various key points of differences among the three.

One of the important differences is that the patents basically secure the physical or conceptual inventions, while copyrights protect literary, artistic or other similar works. On the contrary, trademark does not always have to be innovative, as it can be any word or symbol that can identify an item or brand.

The next important factor that differentiates patents from others is the high level of protection provided by it due to strict terms and conditions. This means that even if the offender has no deliberate intention of infringement, he will be liable for the same. Hence, patents provide a lot more safety than other forms of intellectual property rights without any scope for exceptions like fair use and other such provisions.

A patent is generally awarded for a period of 20 years, after which it passes into the public domain. Whereas, as far as copyrights are concerned, they are normally given for 60-70 years, and trademarks can continue for centuries. Moreover, patents are more comprehensive and give broader safety than others. Patents safeguard not only the final creation like copyrights do but they also protect the principles and mechanisms applied in a particular invention.

Finally, since there are varying levels of protection provided for by these three IPR types, the procedure for submitting an application for them is also quite different from each other. For instance, while a patent application demands comprehensive information on the invention to be disclosed, a copyright application just needs a copy of the original work and trademark needs a database check for already existing marks that are currently in use.

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