October 13, 2026
Trademarks protect the things that identify your brand, like your name and logo. Copyright protects original creative expression, like code, text and images. Patents protect inventions, and trade secrets protect valuable information you keep confidential. A software startup usually needs a trademark for its name, relies on copyright for its code and content, protects its models, data and know-how as trade secrets, and pursues a patent only when it has a genuinely new technical invention.
Key takeaways
| Trademark | Copyright | Patent | Trade secret | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it protects | Names, logos, slogans and other brand identifiers | Original expression: code, text, images, video, designs | New, non-obvious inventions: products, processes, machines | Valuable information kept confidential: algorithms, data, formulas, customer lists |
| How you get it | Use in commerce; register with the USPTO for nationwide rights | Automatic when created; register with the Copyright Office to sue | Apply to the USPTO and be granted after examination | Keep it secret with reasonable measures |
| Government cost | $350 per class of goods or services (base application fee) | $45 or $65 per application online | Several hundred to a few thousand dollars in fees, plus legal fees | None |
| How long it lasts | As long as you use it and keep the registration renewed | Author’s life plus 70 years; 95 years from publication for work made for hire | 20 years from filing (design patents: 15 years from grant) | As long as it stays secret |
| Typical startup example | Your company and product name | Your source code and website | A new hardware design or technical method | Your model weights, training data and pricing logic |
Costs are as of October 2026. The Copyright Office has proposed raising its registration fees in late 2026, and USPTO fees change periodically.
A trademark is a word, name, logo, slogan, or occasionally a sound or color, that tells customers who a product or service comes from. It lets you stop others from using a confusingly similar mark for related goods or services. You get some rights (called common-law rights) just by using the mark, but they are limited to the area where you actually do business. A federal registration gives you nationwide priority, the right to use the ® symbol and much stronger enforcement tools.
The base USPTO fee is $350 per class of goods or services, with surcharges if you write your own description of goods instead of using the USPTO’s pre-approved list. Registrations last as long as you keep using the mark and file the required maintenance documents: a declaration of use between the fifth and sixth years, and renewals every 10 years. Before choosing a name, search it. See How Do Trademarks Work? and How Do I Avoid Trademark Infringement When Choosing a Name?
Copyright protects original works of authorship once they are fixed in a tangible form: source code, website copy, graphics, photos, videos, courses and user interface designs. It gives the owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, publicly display and publicly perform the work. It protects the expression, not the idea behind it, so a competitor can build a product that does the same thing as long as it doesn’t copy your code or content. Fair use allows some limited uses without permission.
Protection is automatic, but you must register a US work before you can sue for infringement, and registering early unlocks statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Material created entirely by AI is not protected, because copyright requires a human author. For when and what to register, see Copyright Registration for Startups.
A patent protects an invention: a new and non-obvious process, machine, manufactured product or composition of matter. It gives you the right to stop others from making, using, selling or importing the invention, even if they came up with it independently. That is something copyright and trade secrets can’t do. In exchange, the invention is published.
Patents are the slowest and most expensive form of IP. Examination usually takes two to three years, and total costs for a US utility patent often run $10,000 to $30,000. Software and business-method claims are frequently rejected as abstract ideas. Only people can be named as inventors, not AI tools. For whether a patent makes sense for your startup, see Startup Patents: Are They Worth It?
A trade secret is any information that has value because competitors don’t know it, and that you take reasonable steps to keep secret. For startups, that often means source code that never leaves your servers, algorithms, model weights, training data, pricing and customer lists. There is no registration. Protection lasts as long as the information stays secret, and it ends if it leaks or someone independently discovers or reverse-engineers it.
Trade secret protection depends on what you do: NDAs and CIIAAs, limited access, and rules about what employees may paste into AI tools. See What Are Trade Secrets?
Usually, in this order. First, make sure the company owns what everyone has built: founders, employees and contractors should all have signed IP assignments. See Who Owns Startup IP? Second, clear and register a trademark for your company or product name, because rebranding later is expensive. Third, rely on copyright for your code and content, and register your core code and key content once there is something worth copying. Fourth, protect your models, data and know-how as trade secrets. Last, consider a patent only if you have a technical invention that competitors could see and copy, and that investors in your sector value.
For a budget-conscious plan, see My Startup Has Limited Resources. How Should I Prioritize Protecting IP? If you’d like help building an IP strategy, contact us.
