Path to a Patent, Part I - Intellectual property basics
Video from USPTO. Watch on YouTube.
What you'll get
USPTO experts survey the four kinds of intellectual property, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights, then walk through the patent process from invention to application to issuance, including what an invention must meet to be patentable, whether a provisional or regular application fits, and how to weigh paying a patent attorney. It opens the agency's eight-part 2026 series and comes from the government office that grants patents, so use it to decide which kinds of protection fit your product before you spend money on any of them.
Do this week
Answer the questions in the USPTO's free IP Identifier for your product, then write down which kinds of intellectual property it says you may hold, which one you would protect first, and whether you have already shown the product in public.