Invention and Innovation

The dual flush loo is an example of invention and innovation. It has two buttons to dispatch different amounts of water from the cistern - a half-flush for liquid waste and a full one for more heavy-duty deposits.

Innovation is the development of new customers value through solutions that meet new needs, inarticulate needs, or old customer and market needs in new ways. This is accomplished through different or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a better and, as a result, novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself. Innovation differs from improvement in that innovation refers to the notion of doing something different rather than doing the same thing better.

An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product, or a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough.

Definitions

Patent: A government authority to an individual or organization conferring a right or title

Copyright: The exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assigned person to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.

Trademark: A symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product. 

An example of a dispute that arose over copyright was Apple suing Samsung for copying their inventive designs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19463693