Patent, Copyright, Trademark & Trade Secrets

 There are 4 types of intellectual property protection methods: 

1. Patents: good for 20 years - the shortest of all 4. 
2. Copyright: good for 70 years after death of the author - for programming code and books, art and so on. 
3. Trademark: renewable - indefinite
4. Trade secret - as long as the secret is not disclosed to public.