Trademark vs copyright: which one gets your content taken down?

The difference in one minute

Copyright is about creative work. The moment you take a photo, write a post, record a video or design a graphic, you own the copyright in it. Someone copying that work without permission is copyright infringement.

Trademark is about identity in business. Your brand name, logo and slogan tell customers who's behind a product or service. Someone using them in a way that confuses customers, like selling fakes or pretending to be you, is trademark infringement.

The quick test: did they copy something you made, or something that identifies you? Made is copyright. Identifies is trademark.

Side by side

• What it protects. Copyright: original creative work. Trademark: names, logos, slogans and other brand identifiers.
• When you get it. Copyright: automatically, as soon as the work exists. Trademark: by using the mark in business, with stronger rights if you register it.
• Registration. Neither is required to report a problem. Registration helps if you ever go to court.
• What counts as misuse. Copyright: copying, posting or sharing your work without permission. Trademark: using your brand in a way likely to confuse customers.
• How to report it online. Copyright: a DMCA takedown notice or a platform's copyright form. Trademark: a platform's trademark or brand report form.

Which one is your problem?

Usually copyright

• Someone reposted your photos, videos, artwork or music.
• A site copied your blog posts, product descriptions or course content.
• A store is using your product photos to sell its own items.
• Someone cloned your whole website. See what to do if your website was copied.

Usually trademark

• Someone is selling fake versions of your product under your brand name.
• An account or page is pretending to be your business.
• A competitor uses a name or logo so close to yours that customers mix you up.
• Someone registered a domain name with your brand in it to mislead people.

Neither

• Someone used the same idea, style or concept as you, but made their own version. Copyright covers how something is expressed, not the idea.
• False or harmful claims about you. That's defamation, which needs a different route.
• Your personal information posted online. That's a privacy issue. See removing personal info from Google.

When it's both

A lot of real cases mix the two. A fake online store might use your brand name and logo (trademark) along with your product photos and descriptions (copyright). A logo can be both: the artwork is protected by copyright, and its use as your brand is protected by trademark.

When that happens, file both kinds of report. The copyright takedown often moves faster because it's easier to prove: here's my original, here's the copy.

How to report each one

Copyright

• Copyright complaints go to whoever controls the content: the website owner, the company hosting the site, or the platform it's posted on. Our FAQ on how to file a DMCA takedown notice explains what a notice is and what it has to include.
• Big platforms review copyright complaints through their own teams, and each one asks for slightly different details.
• Search engines can also remove a copied page from results, separately from the site itself.

Trademark

• Platforms handle trademark and brand complaints separately from copyright, usually through their intellectual property teams.
• Impersonation is usually handled as its own type of report.
• For a domain name built on your brand, there's a separate domain dispute process. That usually needs a lawyer.

Where people get stuck

• Filing the wrong type. A copyright complaint about a brand name, or a trademark complaint about a photo, usually gets rejected.
• Finding the right contact. Copycat sites often hide who runs and hosts them.
• Getting every detail right. Missing URLs or proof of ownership are the most common reasons a complaint is turned down.
• Following up. Many sites ignore the first notice.

Common questions