These two get confused constantly, and the mix-up slows cases down because the wrong claim type gets filed with a platform.
Copyright protects a specific created work: your video, your course content, your product photography, your written content. If someone copies the actual thing you made, that's copyright.
Trademark protects your brand identity: your business name, your logo, and how customers recognize you. If someone uses your name or logo to sell something, or to make their business look like yours, that's trademark, even if they haven't copied a single photo or line of text you wrote.
The overlap that confuses people: a counterfeit listing often infringes both at once. It might use your actual product photos (copyright) while also using your brand name to pass itself off as genuine (trademark). Reporting it as only one or the other, when it's genuinely both, can mean a platform only addresses half the problem.
Getting this distinction right at the start is mostly about which report form you use and which facts you lead with. Most platforms, including Amazon, have separate reporting paths for each, and picking the wrong one is a common reason a report gets bounced back asking for different information.
What you need to show for each
- Copyright: that you made it, and that it was copied
In most countries copyright exists automatically when a work is created, with no registration needed. Your evidence is your original files, publication dates and a clear comparison with the copy. A DMCA-style notice is the usual tool.
- Trademark: that the mark is yours, and that the use confuses customers
Trademark rights are much easier to enforce with a registration, and many platform programmes, including Amazon Brand Registry and Meta's Brand Rights Protection, require one. Your evidence is the registration number and examples of the confusing use.
Common cases and which report fits
- Your course or videos reuploaded
Copyright.
- Your product photos on another seller's listing
Copyright, even if the product itself is different.
- A fake product sold under your brand name
Trademark, and copyright too if it uses your photos.
- A social account using your business name and logo
Impersonation, plus trademark for the logo.
- A competitor using a similar but different name
Possibly trademark, but this is where legal advice matters most: similarity alone isn't always infringement.
Not sure which one applies to your case:
We identify which category, or categories, your case actually falls under before anything is filed, so the report goes in through the right process the first time.