Patents are the strongest form of IP protection. In contrast to a copyright, a patent may be enforced against a competitor who independently derived the invention. Patents may be enforced against competing technologies even where the technology does not appear, on first glance, to resemble the specific embodiments disclosed in the patent.

Patent protection lasts, however, for only twenty years from the effective patent application filing date, whereas copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 100 years. Trade secret and trademark protection, by way of comparison, may last indefinitely.