Intellectual property protection has become increasingly popular over the past century. Many factors have highlighted the interest in this area of ​​law. These factors include musicians seeking to protect their musical talents through copyright, companies seeking to protect their inventions with advanced production capabilities, companies creating brands that differentiate their unique products from those of their competitors, and companies like Coca-Cola protecting their undisclosed ingredients. their products using trade secrets. These examples aim to understand how and why intellectual property rights help businesses seek advantages in the marketplace. Additionally, as the world shrinks due to advances in transportation and computer technology, intellectual property rights are becoming an important part of entrepreneurship and product development. This article will address the interesting and challenging topic of intellectual property protection. The four basic types of intellectual property include copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets; we will discuss the intellectual properties in the order in which they are listed. COPYRIGHT: A copyright prohibits the unauthorized reproduction of creative works such as books, magazines, poems, drawings, paintings, musical compositions, sound recordings, films and DVDs ( Barnes, Dworkin and Richards, 2011). Although many people file documents, copyrights do not require any special filing or process other than personal creativity, copyrights form automatically. All creative works created before 1978 exist for 75 years. Creative works created after 1978 exist for the life of the author plus an additional seventy (70) years. Copyright is granted to an author/creator...... middle of paper ...... companies expand overseas, many companies discover that there are already companies bearing the same brand. However, focusing on the domestic market, the trademark infringement recovery must demonstrate that (1) it owns the trademark; (2) the defendant used the mark in commerce; (3) defendant's use of the mark was beneficial; and (4) the counterfeiter confuses customers (Barnes, Dworkin & Richards, 2011). As China grows industrially and technologically, many American and European companies fear infringement of their trademarks. Most large companies have successfully established and maintained international trademark protection (e.g. Coca-Cola, Apple and McDonald's), while small and medium-sized companies have difficulty copying goods and services. Not to be confused, trademark counterfeiting occurs domestically with products like Nike shoes and Ralph Lauren clothing..