0 laws that protect a person or a company that has created a new product or way of doing something, by stopping anyone else from copying or using it for a particular period of time:
apply for/extend/grant patent protection The biotechnology firm said it was applying for patent protection for the discoveries.
Previous drugs lost patent protection and succumbed to copycat competition.
We can complete it step by step however long the road is and it can't be completed however short the road is if you don't even mark your footprint.