Question: I just applied for copyright protection for a new  insurance product. should i trade mark or patent the name? since my idea is not a tangible product i need to know if it takes long to patent or trade mark the name of a product or idea.

Answer: You cannot patent or copyright a name, you trademark a name.  A "trademark" is a word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others.\n\nEvery state issues their own trademarks, but getting a state trademark is virtually useless. The federal registration will for all intents and purposes trump any state registration. For example, if you get a trademark in Florida and use the mark in commerce only in Orlando, Florida, and subsequently another party files for a federal registration on the same mark, you are estopped from using your mark outside of Orlando! Moreover, a state registration does not even entitle you to rights throughout the entire state. Notice in the previous example that I said that if someone were to obtain a federal registration on the same mark for which you had a Florida state registration you would only be able to use the mark in your geographic area, not throughout the state. So if you use the mark in commerce in Orlando, Florida, and someone acquires a federal registration, they can use the mark in Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, etc. The important concept here is that while a state registration is usually much cheaper than a federal registration, state registration provides little or no significant rights.\n\nFinally, in terms of copyright protection for an insurance product, that is likely not the best form of protection.  A copyright only protects expression, not function.  Patents, on the other hand, protect function.  If your insurance product is new and non-obvious you could receive a patent on it, likely a business method patent.  It is wise to seek copyright protection though, because it is so cheap.\n\nIn terms of how long it will take to obtain a patent or trademark, US patents for business methods could easily take 3 to 4 years from the date you file an application.  Trademarks, however, are much quicker.  Normally you would expect the whole process of obtaining a federal trademark in the US to take about 14 months.
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