A trademark is a symbol or brand that is owned by the person who created it. In the United States, a patent guarantees that an inventor owns the rights to profit made from an invention for 17 years. A copyright means legal and exclusive rights to written material, either published or unpublished.  

Intellectual property comprises two branches: industrial property and artistic property. Industrial property refers chiefly to inventions, trademarks, industrial designs and appellations of origin. For example, the Coca Cola Company owns the symbol that is known around the world for the soft drink that Coca Cola produces. Patents and copyrights are chiefly for literary, musical, artistic, photographic and audiovisual works. For example, on the back of a compact disc (CD) box, there is (in very small print) information about the patent and copyright for the music on that CD.