Copyrights, trademarks, patents... what's the difference?
Copyright, trademarks and patents protect different kinds of intellectual property. Sometimes, one aspect of a work may be subject to copyright protection and another aspect may be covered by trade-mark law.
Trademarks
Trade-marks are used to distinguish the goods or services of one person or company from those of another. Slogans, names of products, distinctive packages or unique product shapes are all examples of features that are eligible for registration as trade-marks. Take "Apple" computer for example. Apple Computer "owns" the word "Apple" when it is applied to computers, even though it is also an ordinary word. Apple Records owns it when applied to music. Neither owns the word on its own, only in context, and owning a mark doesn't mean complete control (there are more laws involved, but that's all you need to know at your age.).
You can't use somebody else's trademark in a way that would steal the value of the mark, or in a way that might make people confuse you with the real owner of the mark, or which might allow you to profit from the mark's good name. For example the actual words in Nike's slogan "Just Do It" cannot be copyrighted and therefore could be used as a headline or tag to illustrate a photo collage of school athletes in a high school yearbook. The actual slogan (words in special typeface with the "Swoosh" logo) probably cannot be used because unlike the three "bare" words, the design of the ad is sufficiently creative and can be copyrighted.
If you created a new board game, you might enjoy a copyright on the artwork applied to the face of the game board, the rules of the game and a trade-mark for the game's title.
Patents
Patents protect new and useful inventions such as processes, equipment, and manufacturing techniques. They do not cover any artistic or aesthetic qualities of an article. Unlike copyrights, patents can only be obtained by registration.
Industrial Designs
Industrial designs are protected for their original shape, pattern, ornamentation or configuration (or any combination of these things) applied to a finished manufactured article. The artwork of your game board may be subject to copyright protection. Industrial design protection might be available for the board itself. Industrial design protection, for example, might be available for the shape of a table or the ornamentation on the handle of a spoon. An industrial design may be made by hand or machine. Like patents, industrial designs are obtained only by registration.
Integrated Circut Topographies
Integrated circuit topographies are protected upon registration. An integrated circuit product is a microchip. Protection is for the topography of an integrated circuit product which is a manufactured device made up of a series of layers of semi-conductors, metals, insulators and other materials. The three-dimensional configuration is a "topography." The original design of the topography is protected.