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Protect It

Ten business assets, four kinds of protection. Decide whether each one is best protected by a trademark, copyright, a patent or a trade secret. You have five hearts.

MediumLaw2 min

Protect It is a learning aid and not legal advice. Intellectual property rules differ between countries.

How to play Protect It

Each round describes one thing a business owns, such as a logo, a piece of software or a recipe. Tap the kind of protection that fits it best and press Check. After each answer you get one sentence on why.
A correct answer scores 10 XP and a perfect run adds 20 XP. A wrong answer costs one of your five hearts. The ten assets are drawn from a set of seventeen.

Four kinds of protection

  • Trademark. Protects the signs that tell customers who a product comes from: names, logos and slogans. It can last as long as the mark is used and renewed.
  • Copyright. Protects original expression such as text, images, music, drawings and software code. It arises automatically when the work is created and protects the way something is expressed, not the idea behind it.
  • Patent. Protects a new and inventive technical solution for a limited period, commonly twenty years, in return for publishing how it works.
  • Trade secret. Protects valuable information for as long as it stays secret and the owner takes reasonable steps to keep it that way.

Patent or secret?

The hardest choice in the game is between a patent and a trade secret, and businesses face it in real life. A patent is strong and public: everyone can read how the invention works, and nobody else may use it until the patent expires. A trade secret has no expiry date, and it offers no protection against someone who works out the same thing independently.
A useful test is to ask whether the product gives the secret away. A mechanism that anyone can see by opening the casing cannot stay secret, so a patent is the way to protect it. A recipe or a server-side algorithm can stay hidden for decades.

One product, several rights

Most products carry more than one kind of protection. A smartphone has a trademarked name, patented components, copyrighted software and manufacturing know-how held as trade secrets. Using the wrong tool leaves a gap: copyright will not stop a competitor from using the idea in your manual, and a trademark will not protect how your product works.
The law guides on Kurums cover each right in detail. For another legal game, try Red Flag Hunter, which asks you to spot risky contract clauses.

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