Affiliate Intellectual Property Policy –
Copyrights , Trademarks and Patents
This article applies to selling in: Canada
FAQ about Copyrights
A copyright is a type of intellectual property (IP) that protects original works of authorship.
1. What is a copyright?
A copyright protects original works of authorship, such as videos, movies, songs, books, musicals, video games, paintings, etc. Generally, copyright law is meant to incentivize the creation of original works of authorship for the benefit of the public. To receive copyright protection, a work of authorship must be created by an author, and must have some amount of creativity. If you are the author of an original work, then you typically own the copyright in that work.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a Canada law that governs online copyrighted materials. The DMCA applies to copyrights only and not to trademarks or patents.
2.How do I know if I own the copyright for one or more of the images or videos I am using on the detail page?
- You generally own the copyright of the photo you took or the video you filmed for your product.
- You generally do not own the copyright of photos or videos you found on someone else’s website, and you must not upload such content to a product detail page without the copyright holder’s permission.
FAQ about Trademarks
A trademark is a type of intellectual property (IP) that protects words, symbols, and designs used to identify a company’s goods or services.
What is a trademark?
A trademark is a word, symbol or design, or a combination of the same (such as a brand name or logo) that a company uses to identify its goods or services and to distinguish them from other companies’ goods and services. Put another way, a trademark indicates the source of goods or services. Generally, trademark laws exist to prevent customer confusion about the source of goods or services.
Example: “GraceMee” is a trademark we use for many of our goods and services.
What does trademark law protect?
Generally, trademark law protects sellers of goods and services from customer confusion about who provides, endorses, or is affiliated with particular goods or services. A trademark owner might be able to stop others from using a particular mark, or a confusingly similar mark, if using the mark is likely to cause a customer to be confused about whether the product being sold is the trademark owner’s product.
FAQ about Patents
A patent is a type of intellectual property (IP) that protects inventions.
What is a patent?
A patent is a form of legal protection for inventions. An issued patent grants its owner the right to exclude others from making, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing the invention into Canada for a fixed number of years.
Are there different types of patents?
There are two principal types of patents in Canada: Utility patents and Design patents.
Utility patents, the most common kind of patent, may be granted for a new machine, articles of manufacture, composition of matter, process, or improvement to any of those, and generally protect the structure and functions of a product rather than how it looks.
Design patents, on the other hand, may be granted for the unique look of a product, but do not cover the structure or functions of a product.
How are patents different from trademarks and copyrights?
A patent is different from a trademark in that it protects an invention (such as a new machine) rather than a word or logo used to identify the source of the product (such as the brand name of the product). A patent is different from a copyright in that it does not protect the expressive content of a creative work like a book or a picture, but protects a specific invention, such as a new method of printing books or a new type of camera.
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office offers resources to learn more about patents.