Which one does a startup need first?
A trademark, almost always. Your brand name is the asset customers, investors and marketplaces see, and it is the one most likely to be copied or challenged. Filing takes a day, the government fee is ₹4,500 per class for startups and MSMEs, and you can use ™ from the filing date. Copyright already protects your code and content from the moment you create them, so registration can wait until you need proof for a dispute, a licensing deal or an investor's due diligence. A patent is worth the cost only if you have a genuinely new technical invention and a business that depends on excluding others from it. Many founders file a trademark in month one, register copyright in year one and consider a patent only after product-market fit.
Can the same product have all three?
Yes, and many do. Take a fitness app. The name and logo are trademarks in class 9 (software) and class 41 (training services). The source code, screen designs, workout videos and written content are copyright works, each registrable separately. If the app uses a new method of measuring movement with a phone sensor that produces a technical effect, that method might be patentable, subject to the bar on computer programs per se under Section 3(k). Each right has its own office, fee and timeline, and losing one does not affect the others. Prioritise by what a competitor would most easily copy: usually the name first, the content second and the invention last.
How long does each take, and what does it cost?
A trademark application gets a number the same day and typically registers in 8 to 18 months if there is no objection or opposition; government fees are ₹4,500 per class for individuals, startups and MSMEs and ₹9,000 for others. Copyright registration usually takes 3 to 6 months after a 30-day window for objections; the fee is a few hundred rupees per work for most literary and artistic works, including software (indicative, check the Copyright Office schedule). A patent takes 2 to 4 years through examination, or under a year for a startup that requests expedited examination; filing and examination fees for individuals and startups run to a few thousand rupees, with large entities paying several times that (indicative, check IP India). Professional drafting is the bigger cost for a patent, because the claims decide what you actually own.
What can you not protect?
Ideas, on their own. Copyright protects the expression of an idea, so a business model, a recipe concept or a plot can be copied as long as the words and code are not. A trademark cannot be a generic or descriptive term for your goods, so "Best Tea" for tea will be refused, and it cannot copy an existing mark in the same class. A patent needs novelty, an inventive step and industrial use, and it is lost if you disclose the invention publicly, including at a demo day or in a blog post, before filing. Business methods, algorithms as such and computer programs per se are excluded under Section 3(k). If your advantage is a process or know-how, a well-drafted confidentiality agreement may protect it better than any registration.
