On a limited budget, protect your intellectual property in order of value per dollar: first make sure the company owns what you’ve built, then keep your secrets secret, then protect your name, then register copyright in your core code and content, and file a provisional patent only if you have something genuinely new and a plan to follow through. The first two steps cost little more than signed agreements and good habits, and they’re what investors check first in diligence.
Key takeaways
- Ownership comes first. Founders, employees and contractors should all have assigned their work to the company in writing.
- Trade secret protection is nearly free but disappears if you don’t take reasonable steps to keep the information secret.
- A federal trademark application costs $350 per class in USPTO fees. Clear the name before you file.
- Copyright registration costs $45 to $65 per work and preserves your strongest remedies.
- A provisional patent application is relatively cheap but expires after 12 months unless you file the full application.
What does each step cost, and when should we do it?
| Step | Government cost | When |
| 1. Ownership: founder IP assignments, CIIAAs, contractor assignment clauses | None | At formation and on everyone’s first day |
| 2. Trade secrets: NDAs, access controls, an AI-tool policy | None | From day one |
| 3. Trademark on your company or product name | $350 per class | Before launch or before you spend on the brand |
| 4. Copyright registration for core code and content | $45 to $65 per work | Before launch, then for major versions |
| 5. Provisional patent application | $65 to $325, depending on entity size | Before any public disclosure of a patentable invention |
Legal fees come on top of these government fees, especially for trademarks and patents.
Step 1: Does the company own what we’ve built?
This is the cheapest and most important step. Code, designs and inventions belong to the person who created them until they’re assigned to the company in writing. Each founder should assign their pre-formation work when they buy their stock, and every founder, employee and contractor should sign a confidential information and invention assignment agreement (CIIAA) or an agreement with the same terms. Contractors are the common gap: a contractor owns the copyright in what they create unless your agreement assigns it. Investors check this before anything else, and fixing it after someone has left is hard. See Who Owns Startup IP? and CIIAA.
If AI tools write part of your code, the rules on who owns that output are a new area of law and likely to shift. Keep track of which tools you use and read their terms.
Step 2: How do we protect trade secrets?
A trade secret is protected for as long as it stays secret and you take reasonable steps to keep it that way. Write down what your secrets are (algorithms, model weights, training data, pricing, customer lists), limit access to the people who need it, use NDAs before sharing with partners, and have a written policy on what employees may put into third-party AI tools. Protection is immediate and has no registration cost, but it doesn’t stop a competitor who develops the same thing independently or reverse engineers a product you’ve sold. That’s when a patent can be worth more. See What Are Trade Secrets?
If your product depends on data from a third party, make sure your license lets you use it the way you do, including for training models. Diligence will ask.
Step 3: When should we file a trademark?
Before you spend real money on the brand. Search first, because a registration doesn’t defeat someone who used a similar name for related goods before you, and renaming after launch is expensive. A federal registration sharply reduces the risk of a dispute and gives you nationwide rights. Start with your company or main product name in the classes that matter most, and add logos and taglines as revenue allows. If you haven’t launched, an intent-to-use application reserves your priority. See How Do Trademarks Work? and our trademark service.
Step 4: Should we register copyright in our code?
For core code and key content, yes. Copyright exists automatically, but you can’t sue over a US work until it’s registered, and statutory damages and attorney’s fees are only available if you registered before the infringement or within three months of publication. Registration costs $45 for a single work by a single author and $65 for most other applications. For software, you can deposit a redacted portion of the source code to protect your trade secrets. See Should My Startup File a Copyright?
Step 5: When does a provisional patent make sense?
When you have an invention that is genuinely new, valuable to competitors, and visible in your product, so trade secrecy won’t protect it. A provisional application establishes a filing date, lets you say “patent pending,” and gives you 12 months to file the full application. The USPTO filing fee is $65 for micro entities, $130 for small entities and $325 for large entities, but drafting it well is where the cost is: a thin provisional may not support the claims you need later.
Timing matters. In the US, you have one year after your own public disclosure to file, but most other countries require filing before any public disclosure. If you’ll want patents outside the US, file before you launch, publish or pitch without an NDA. Budget for the full application within the year, or the provisional simply expires. See Startup Patents: Are They Worth It?
For an overview, see Trademark vs Copyright vs Patent and Startup Intellectual Property. If you’d like help putting the ownership agreements in place, see our Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreement or contact us.
