Can I patent my new song?

Not quite! This post will briefly describe the major ways of protecting intellectual property. They are:

Patents protect novel inventions like processes, mass-produced items, and machines. Utility patents protect functional aspects, such as a faster machine. Design patents protect aesthetic aspects, such as a pleasant appearance. Patents can protect the fruits of a company’s innovation.

Trademarks protect a brand of the goods or services of a business. Trademarks can protect a company’s reputation.

(This is where your song comes in!) Copyrights protect artistic creations that exist in a medium such as paper or canvas (like songs, books, poems, pictures, and paintings) and intellectually created works in digital format (like software code). Copyrights can prevent use of such creations without the artist’s consent.

More information on these categories is available at https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/trademark-patent-copyright.