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10 things to know about patents, trademarks and copyrights. As an inventor, it's imperative to protect your intellectual property. It's no different than safeguarding tangible property like your house, your car, your business or building. Your intellectual property refers to creations of the mind. Now quite often, in person and on social media, always ask why and vendors, which of these are best to obtain for their product, a patent, trademark, or copyright? The answer is it depends. If patent, trademark and copyright all offer legal protection, but they each protect different aspects of your product. Today, I'm counting down 10 things to know about patents, trademarks, and copyrights to help you determine which one is best for your needs. Number 10. Patents prevent others from making using or selling your invention. Anyone can apply for a patent as long as their idea is new, useful and non obvious. Number nine, Patents protect you for up to 20 years. Number eight trademarks protect your brand words, phrases, symbols, or logos. Number seven trademarks distinguish your products or services from others. Number six trademarks offer nationwide protection. Number five, copyrights protect original artistic and literary works. Number four, you own any creative work you create with common law copyrights, but registering with the federal government offers the ultimate in protection. Number three, to obtain a patent you have to be the first one to apply for a patent. It no longer matters if you're the first person to invent if someone else beats you to a filing. Number two, most businesses have all three forms of protection. For example, Apple has patents for its products. Their infamous Apple logo is trademarked, and the design of the iPhone is also protected with a copyright. And number one, the patent professor can help you with any of these legal rights, your intellectual property, whether it's in the form of a patent, a trademark or a copyright allows you to earn both recognition and financial benefit. I highly discourage you from producing your work or invention and bringing it to market without the proper form of protection. If you have any questions about how to protect your intellectual property, see the description for more videos and resources on this topic. You can also leave your questions in the comments and someone from my team will get back to you immediately. Be sure to turn on your notification and subscribe so you don't miss next week's video.