Patents protect inventors. Patents are meant "to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States." The idea is that inventors are granted that protection in return for sharing how to practice their invention with the world.

It is important that inventors know their obligations during the whole process to understand how to maintain possession of their intellectual property and to leave themselves open to receive full protection.

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Copyrights protect artists and cover their artwork, be that images, books, sculptures, music, or any other sort of original works of authorship. Copyrights exist automatically in all artwork when it is created, but gain extra protection (and by consequence may become more valuable) through registration with the United States Copyright Office.

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Trademarks protect the public, by identifying the source of a good or service. They ensure that a brand is controlled by only one entity. Registering a trademark can help a business owner build a brand by ensuring consistent use of it. When choosing a brand or business name, it is important for a founder to ensure that that name has not already been trademarked, both to avoid infringing and to allow for the business having that protection. Simply registering a business name and trademark does not ensure a trademark's availability.

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Trade secrets are used to protect business workflows, inventions, and assets from ever becoming available to competitors. Although having a trade secret does not limit others from reproducing your item directly, the idea is that, when paired with something that cannot be reverse-engineered, that item will be solely yours. In the event of a rogue employee sharing your trade secret, legal action can be taken, although the damage would likely have already been done to your business. Examples of typical trade secrets might be customers lists or manufacturing processes. Possibly the most famous trade secret of all time is the formula for Coca-Cola.

By having a trade secret, it is important to recognize the risk, and long-term factors that might inhibit success. For example, in the event of a trade secret becoming publicly known (through uninvited employee disclosure or reverse-engineering by a third party), patentability might be affected. Following the philosophy of patents, the USPTO tends to look down upon keeping secrets of this nature.

Trade secrets have the advantage of being able to last forever, but they are often difficult to enforce, especially in larger organizations.