Trademark, Copyright, Patent...Do any of you have these.

I'm wondering if I need to start protecting the IP of my app and would appreciate any thoughts you more experienced developers may have. My user base is only about 120 users, but it's a specialized high priced app. Recently I saw someone saying they were going "Make a spreadsheet version of xyz app" I mean seriously...more power to them if they want to try black box 40,000 lines of code...spend 1000 hours doing it to save a couple hundred bucks...have at it. I just don't want to them to use the name of my app. Patent is out of the question, I'd never make the money back. Could I copyright or trademark the app name/ip. Again, appreciate any thoughts or links to study materials.

If you want to just protect the "Name" of your app and not what it does, then trademark the name.

(p.s. you can't protect the "name" of something with a patent)

In the USA (other countries = mileage may vary) ... As soon as you "write" your code then you own the copyright to it. However, that's not what you're talking about here, I don't think. Copyright only protects that someone can't copy your work, not doing something functionally similar (like the spreadsheet in your example).

Yes, at the very least, you should trademark your apps' name, graphics, etc., so they can't re-use your app name. But, again, that's not going to help in your example with someone doing something different to solve the same problem.

Oh, and to answer your thread title, yes, I have all three of those for multiple things (apps, inventions, processes, etc.)

you might still have to enforce either (at potentially great expense). waving your trademark or copyright may not be enough against a determined enough entity.