The terms trademark, copyright, and patent are bandied about in various small biz arenas, but are often misunderstood. I’m here to clear up the confusion and explain how they pertain to your business and when you actually need them.

Bottom line: these are all about protecting your Intellectual Property (IP). If your work is ever stolen, these will allow you to take legal action. With the amount of digital theft and impersonation scams in South Africa today, you need to be proactive about protecting your business assets.

 

1. Trademarks: Protecting Your Brand Identity

This is the most relevant category for small businesses. A trademark protects your brand identifiers: your company name, logo, and/or slogan.

• The ™ Symbol: This means the company has applied for a trademark but it isn’t finalized yet.
• The ® Symbol: This means the application was successful. The brand identifiers are officially registered and owned.

If you don’t have a registered trademark, your identifiers are basically a free-for-all.

In South Africa, it costs between R3,000 and R5,000 to register, and the process takes 2–3 years. Once granted, the license is valid for 10 years, after which it costs just a couple hundred Rands to renew.

Important
Registering a company name at the CIPC is not the same as trademarking it. The CIPC will often let you register a company name even if someone else already has the trademark. You might not know there’s a conflict until you get a cease and desist letter from an irate business owner. Always check the trademark database before registering your business.

How can I help?
If I designed your logo, I can take action on your behalf if someone steals it, as I haven’t given anyone else permission to use that design.

 

2. Copyright: Protection for Original Creators

Copyright is for the protection of original works in art, design, literature, and music. For example, this blog post is copyrighted to me because it is my original writing.

• It’s automatic: In South Africa, you don’t have to register copyright. It exists the moment you create something.
• It’s global: Someone in another country can’t copy your art pixel-for-pixel; if you created it first, you own it.
• AI doesn’t qualify: You cannot copyright anything created using Artificial Intelligence. AI scrapes the internet from other creators, so you aren’t the original creator.

Can you transfer Copyright?
Not really. Just as I can’t transfer my design skills to you, I can’t truly transfer the copyright. A designer owns the work by default but grants you usage rights via a contract or license document.

Attention Canva designers
You can’t copy a design you’ve created that contains photos or clip art elements that you didn’t create yourself. I’m talking to you, Canva designers. If you’ve designed something in Canva and used their elements, then you can’t copyright it because you didn’t create the actual elements. Even if you’ve purchased photos or elements from another creator, copyright of any designs you create with those won’t be applicable to your design.

Important
If you’re worried about theft, keep evidence. Video your creative process, keep timestamped backups, or share works-in-progress on socials for social proof.

 

3. Patents: Protection for Inventors

Patents are purely for inventions. They protect functional or technical processes, and are all about how something works.
In South Africa, a patent must be new, involve an inventive step, and be usable in trade, industry, or agriculture.

• Example: You invent a new eco-friendly packaging made from recycled cat fur in the shape of a sleeping cat. The process to make it and that unique shape can be patented.
• Duration: Patents are valid for 20 years.
• The Process: It’s complicated and expensive. You can get a patent pending number from the CIPC relatively easily, but you’ll need a qualified patent attorney to file the final paperwork within 12–15 months.

Important
If you’ve invented something worthwhile, keep it a secret! In SA, if you sell or advertise your invention before filing a provisional patent, you lose the right to patent it entirely.

I hope you’ve found this helpful! Now you’re ready to go out there and re-educate the misinformed the next time you see someone sprouting nonsense about these licenses.