TRADE SECRETS, TRADEMARKS, & COPYRIGHTS

Though investors do not place much faith in trade secrets when evaluating startups, mature companies may elect to protect technologies as trade secrets rather than deal with the hassle and expense of patents. For example, instead of patenting components of its technology platform, Millennium Pharmaceuticals patents drug targets and compounds which may eventually become products. Like patents, trade secrets can also be licensed and treated as intellectual property, but the legal methods used to define trade secret status are complex and less reliable.

Trademarks are used to protect company names, product names, logos, and mottos. Before incorporating your company, consult your attorney and commission a $300 a trademark search on your company's name. Changing the name later may be disruptive.

Copyrights are used to protect publishable works such as books, articles, and almost anything else that has an author, including software code. Copyrights are generally not relevant to your company's technology unless it involves proprietary software; even then you may consider trade secret or patent protection.