How to protect intellectual property
By BlockchainSignLast updated
Four separate rights, and most people need a different one from the one they came looking for. This page is a map: what each right covers, what it costs, which one applies to your thing — and the gap all four leave, which is proving what you had and when.
The four rights
They are not variations on a theme. They protect different things, arise differently, and cost wildly different amounts.
| Protects | Arises | Duration | US registration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copyright | Original expression — text, code, images, music | Automatically on creation | Life + 70, or 95 years | ~$45–$65, required before suing |
| Trademark | Signs that identify who made something | On use in commerce | Indefinite, with use and renewals | $350 per class, plus surcharges |
| Patent | New, non-obvious inventions | Only on grant | ~20 years | Thousands, and years |
| Trade secret | Valuable information that is not known | On secrecy, and reasonable steps to keep it | While it stays secret | None — registration would destroy it |
Two consequences people rarely expect:
You already own more than you think. Copyright is automatic. You do not register to have it; in the US you register to sue on it.
And less than you think. None of the four protects an idea. 17 USC 102(b) excludes ideas, procedures, systems and methods of operation in terms, and no other right fills the gap. See trademark vs copyright for an idea and how to protect an idea.
Which right applies to your thing
The most common mistake is reaching for copyright when the answer is trademark, and it is not a close call — names, slogans and short phrases are excluded from copyright by regulation.
Twenty pages, one per asset, each with the answer and a comparison: trademark vs copyright. The ones people get wrong most often:
- A logo — usually both, and a plain wordmark gets no copyright at all.
- A brand name — trademark only. Never copyright.
- A slogan — trademark if distinctive; copyright never.
- A book title — neither, unless it names a series.
- A product design — mostly a design patent, with a filing deadline.
- Source code — copyright covers what you wrote, not what it does.
- A recipe — the ingredient list is not protectable; the trade secret is.
If you have a finished creative work and want the practical steps, the how to copyright guides cover fifteen work types — book, song, logo, photo, screenplay, website and the rest.
What none of them do
Every one of the four assumes a prior question is settled: that the work is yours, and that you had it first.
Registration does not answer it. A copyright registration records what you deposited on the day you filed, which is usually long after you made it. A patent is decided on filing date. A trademark turns on first use in commerce, which is a question of evidence. Trade secret protection requires showing what the information was and when you held it — without publishing it, which would end the protection.
So in a real dispute the argument is rarely about which right exists. It is about dates, and about whose records the other side can attack.
That is the gap this site is about, and it is worth being precise about what fills it: a timestamp proves a specific file existed by a specific time and has not changed since. It proves existence and integrity, not authorship — see proof of existence vs proof of authorship. It creates no right. What it does is make a date unarguable, cheaply enough that you can do it continuously rather than once.
For where that evidence actually stands, jurisdiction by jurisdiction: is a blockchain timestamp valid in court.
By situation
The dates that matter are not evenly distributed. These are the moments where a missing record costs the most:
| Situation | What is at stake | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Before filing a patent | Novelty, and the disclosure grace period | Design freeze records before filing |
| Someone patents what you already do | Your right to carry on | Prior use rights |
| You want to stop others patenting it | Blocking, without the cost of filing | Prior art and defensive publication |
| Keeping a formula or method secret | Proving what you held, without disclosing it | Trade secret proof without disclosure |
| Pitching to someone who has not signed | Priority, when a contract is unavailable | Prove a pitch predates a knockoff |
| Disclosing under an agreement | What exactly was disclosed, and when | NDA vs blockchain timestamp |
| Advising clients on any of the above | Records a client can make without uploading anything | Timestamping for patent attorneys |
The honest order of operations
- Work out which right you actually have. Usually more than one, and usually not the one you assumed.
- Register what you would defend. Copyright registration is cheap and unlocks statutory damages in the US; a trademark is worth it once a name carries value; a patent only when exclusivity pays for itself.
- Keep dated records of everything else — which is most of it, since almost nothing gets registered.
- Get advice before any deadline. Patent filing deadlines are unforgiving, and most jurisdictions have no grace period after your own disclosure.
A timestamp is step 3. It is cheap, permanent, and it does not replace steps 1, 2 or 4.
US law unless stated, with notes where other jurisdictions differ. General information, not legal advice.