Service Mark
-- A Service Mark provides a service industry with the same identification as a Trademark does for a producer. The terms Service Mark and Trademark may be used interchangeably. This web site and its dial-up Bulletin Board (now closed) has a Service Mark on its name, the Freeware Hall of Fame. The SM means others cannot open another web site or BBS with our name, or run anything named Freeware Hall of Fame.
That didn't matter until we published a book, reviewers gushed over it, and we were named one of the top 25 Bulletin Boards in the country. Suddenly, even though we were a free Board, it mattered enough to spend $750 for a Service Mark. Now its even more important due to the popularity of this web site.
Trademarks and Service Marks are commonly associated with money, but money plays no part in their definition.
Patent
-- A Patent is exclusive ownership of an invention and gives the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling a device or process. A Utility Patent covers a new process,
machine, or manufactured article. Design Patents cover ornamentation. A Plant Patent covers new varieties of hybrid cultivation.
Recently someone here built a golf club with a cone-shaped head. His studies showed it reduced downswing drag and uneven air pressures and allowed straighter, longer golf shots. He was granted a Utility Patent for the invention. There's nothing new about a golf club and nothing new about the shape of a cone, but combining them was patentable.