Trademark, Patent, Design or Copyright: What Protects What?

Trademark, patent, design or copyright? These four protections get thrown together all the time, especially by founders right before launch. The short answer: each one protects something different. A trademark protects signs such as names and logos, a patent protects technical inventions, a design protects the shape of a product, and copyright arises automatically for works. Mix them up and you end up protecting the wrong thing, or nothing at all. If your concern is a brand name or a logo, the trademark is the right tool. It lasts 10 years according to Section 47 of the German Trademark Act (MarkenG) and renews indefinitely. This overview maps the four rights clearly, so you know which one fits your plans. This is general orientation, not legal advice.

Key Takeaways

• A trademark protects signs (name, logo), a patent protects inventions, a design protects the shape, and copyright protects works.
• A trademark lasts 10 years and renews indefinitely, with no upper limit (Section 47 MarkenG).
• A patent runs for a maximum of 20 years, a design for at most 25 years (DPMA, 2026).
• Copyright arises automatically on creation, without registration (Section 64 UrhG).
• For a name or a logo in the market, the trademark is the fitting protection.

Before you commit to one right, it pays to look at all four side by side. When it comes to your name, you can research your trademark at any time before you file.

Which four protections exist, and what does each one protect?

There are four central protections, and each one covers a different subject. A trademark distinguishes goods and services in commerce. A patent protects technical inventions according to the DPMA (2026). A registered design protects the appearance of a product. Copyright protects personal intellectual creations and arises automatically (Section 64 UrhG).

The simplest rule of thumb: ask yourself what exactly you want to protect. Is it a name or logo that makes you recognizable in the market? Then you are dealing with a trademark. Is it a technical solution, a component or a process? Then we are talking about a patent or a utility model (Gebrauchsmuster). Is it about the look of a product, meaning shape, color, pattern? Then the design is the tool. And a text, a photo, software or music? That falls under copyright.

Do not ask "which right sounds important," but "what exactly do I want to protect." The subject determines the right, not the other way around.

This mapping sounds simple, yet it gets confused daily. Many people want to "patent their idea" but actually mean the company name. A pure business idea is protected by none of the four rights. What gets protected is always something concrete: a sign, an invention, a design, a work.

What is a trademark for, and how long does it last?

A trademark protects signs that distinguish your goods and services from others. It lasts 10 years from the filing date according to Section 47 MarkenG and renews for further 10-year terms as often as you like. There is no statutory upper limit. Filing at the DPMA costs 290 euros electronically for up to three classes according to the DPMA (2026).

This is the decisive difference from all the other rights: a trademark can in theory live forever. A patent and a design must eventually expire, a trademark does not, as long as you renew and use it. The renewal costs 750 euros per ten-year period according to the DPMA (2026). It is exactly this unlimited renewability that makes the trademark the lasting anchor of a business identity.

A trademark protects names, logos, slogans and other signs that distinguish goods and services in commerce. It lasts 10 years from the filing date according to Section 47 MarkenG and renews for further 10-year terms indefinitely, with no statutory upper limit. That makes it the only one of the four protections without a fixed expiry date.

The choice of classes matters. A trademark does not protect "everywhere," but only for specific classes of goods and services. And the office does not examine older third-party trademarks, that stays your job before filing. What an upfront search costs and delivers is covered under trademark search cost.

When do you need a patent or a utility model?

You need a patent when you want to protect a technical invention. It protects technical solutions, meaning products or processes, according to the DPMA (2026), and runs for a maximum of 20 years from the day after filing. Annual fees become due from the start of the third year. Unlike with a trademark, here it is mandatory to stop after 20 years.

So the patent is made for an entirely different world: not for your name, but for your technical solution. Anyone who develops a new mechanism, a chemical process or a novel component is in the right place with a patent. A brand name or logo, by contrast, is never patentable, because it is not a technical invention.

Alongside it there is the utility model (Gebrauchsmuster), often called the "little patent." It is an unexamined protection that gets registered quickly according to the DPMA (2026), and it lasts at most 10 years. The advantage is speed, the price is the lack of official novelty examination. Both protect technology, both expire, both have nothing to do with your name.

A patent protects technical inventions such as products or processes according to the DPMA (2026) and runs for a maximum of 20 years from the day after filing. The utility model (Gebrauchsmuster), the "little patent," is an unexamined protection with quick registration and a term of at most 10 years. Both protect technology, not signs.

What does a registered design, formerly Geschmacksmuster, protect?

A registered design protects the appearance of a product, meaning shape, contours, colors or patterns. It protects the design, not the function and not the name, according to the DPMA (2026). Protection lasts at most 25 years from the filing date, initially 5 years and renewable four times for 5 years each.

The registered design used to be called Geschmacksmuster, and the substance is the same. It is about the look: the design of a chair, the shape of a bottle, the pattern on a fabric. As soon as the look of a product is your selling point, a design is worth a look. If your product works through a technical solution, the patent is more likely the topic.

For the EU market there is the registered Community design at the EUIPO. It protects across the EU according to the EUIPO (2026) and likewise lasts at most 25 years. With one filing you cover all EU member states. How an EU-wide search works in principle is shown in the overview of the EUIPO trademark search tool.

A registered design, formerly Geschmacksmuster, protects the appearance of a product such as shape, color or pattern according to the DPMA (2026), for at most 25 years from the filing date. EU-wide, the registered Community design at the EUIPO offers the same protection, also a maximum of 25 years (EUIPO, 2026). What gets protected is the design, not the function.

Why does copyright arise without any registration?

Because copyright arises automatically when a work is created. It protects personal intellectual creations, meaning texts, photos, music, software or art, according to Section 64 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG). Registration or recording is neither necessary nor possible. Protection expires only 70 years after the author's death, far longer than with any other right.

This is the big difference: with a trademark, patent and design you have to actively file and pay. With copyright the protection happens by itself, the moment the work is created. You need no office, no fee, no application. That is exactly why copyright appears in no fee table.

In practice this means a self-designed logo often already enjoys copyright protection once it reaches a certain level of originality. But that protects the work as such, not its function as a sign in the market. For the recognizability of your trademark, copyright is no substitute for a registered trademark.

Copyright protects personal intellectual creations according to Section 64 UrhG and arises automatically on creation, without registration or recording. It expires only 70 years after the author's death. That makes it the only one of the four protections that arises without an office, application and fee, but in return it does not secure the sign function in the market.

Which protection fits your logo?

For a logo used as a sign in the market, the trademark is the right tool. A logo can be protected several ways at once: as a figurative mark, as a registered design and possibly by copyright. But only the trademark specifically protects the distinguishing function, and it is the only one that renews indefinitely according to Section 47 MarkenG, with no upper limit.

This is the uncomfortable but useful point. Many people are glad their logo is "automatically protected by copyright" and save themselves the trademark filing. That falls short. Copyright protects the logo as a creative work. A design protects its appearance. Neither one protects the fact that your logo makes you distinguishable as a provider in the market. That is exactly the trademark's job.

In practice this means: if you want to stop a competitor from showing up in your market with a confusingly similar sign, you need the trademark. Whether you protect your logo as a word mark, a figurative mark or a word-figurative mark makes a difference here. The guide word mark vs. figurative mark explains the trade-off.

A logo can be protected several ways according to the DPMA (2026) and Section 47 MarkenG: as a figurative mark, as a registered design and possibly by copyright. Yet only the trademark specifically protects the distinguishing function in commerce and is the only one of the four rights that renews for further 10-year terms indefinitely, with no statutory upper limit.

Conclusion: first clarify what you protect, then choose the right

The most important insight first: which protection fits depends on what exactly you want to protect. A trademark secures signs such as names and logos and lasts 10 years according to Section 47 MarkenG, renewable indefinitely. A patent protects technical inventions for a maximum of 20 years, a registered design protects the shape of a product for at most 25 years (DPMA, 2026). Copyright arises automatically for works and ends 70 years after the author's death (Section 64 UrhG). If your concern is a name or a logo in the market, the trademark is the right tool, because only it protects the distinguishing function specifically and without an expiry date. All of this is general orientation, not legal advice; when in doubt, have your case checked by a lawyer. The first step for your name stays the same: research your trademark before you file.